History

In the late 1980s a group of parents started meeting at each other’s homes with a shared purpose and vision: to improve the lives of their children diagnosed with schizophrenia by developing better support services and promoting more understanding about mental illness in the community. They focused on education and their collective experience and support to achieve this.

The families formalised their work in May 1990 with the incorporation of the Schizophrenia Fellowship of WA and the launch of the Lorikeet Centre in West Leederville, Perth. In November 2002, the Fellowship changed its name to the Mental Illness Fellowship of WA (MIFWA).

The values and commitment of those founding parents remain at the heart of our mission today: to provide information and support services to people with mental illness, their carers, family and friends as well as to promote an understanding of issues relating to mental illness in the community.

MIFWA is a non-government, not-for-profit organisation and part of the national family known as Mental Illness Fellowship of Australia (MIFA).