OUR WORK - The Five Strategic Pillars

The Foundation's work is organised across five mutually reinforcing pillars each one connected to the failures, and the possibilities, that Kashia's life and story illuminate. Together they form one commitment: that people living with severe mental illness in Australia will be seen, supported and protected across every system that touches their lives.

1. The Annual Symposium

The Finding Your Voice Symposium. Year One theme: "Voices at the Centre; Lived Experience & Family in the Reform Agenda"

Once a year, the Foundation brings the sector into one space: clinicians, researchers, policymakers, family advocates and people with lived experience to take an honest stock of Australia's mental health system and set measurable goals it can be held to.

Not a talkfest. An accounting.

Why a Symposium?
Australia's mental health sector does not lack goodwill. It lacks a regular, credible forum where progress or the lack of it is evaluated honestly and publicly. The Symposium exists to create that accountability, to platform the Foundation's research and policy positions, and to build a coalition of organisations strong enough to move governments.

What makes ours different?

Lived experience leads. People with lived experience of mental health challenges, and their families, are not a session on our agenda, they are the primary source of knowledge and the ones who set the reform direction.

Cultural safety is built in, not bolted on. We create genuine space for participants from minority and ethnic cultural backgrounds to share their distinct experiences of the mental health system, and to shape the conversation in ways that are culturally safe. As a Pacific Island family, we know what it means to navigate these systems from outside the mainstream.

The format:

A two-day national event, rotating between major Australian cities
Keynote addresses from sector leaders, government representatives and international guests
Dedicated sessions on policy reform, research findings, digital health innovation, arts-based interventions, and family carer perspectives.

The first Inaugural Symposium is scheduled for Apr 2027 in Canberra (venue to be announced).

2. Public Awareness & Arts

Music and the arts reach where statistics cannot

Stigma remains one of the greatest barriers to seeking help especially for the conditions least understood, like Schizoaffective Disorder and related psychotic conditions.

Kashia knew this. She was passionate about the power of creativity to change the public story around mental illness, and she lived it: in her songs, her paintings, her dancing. This pillar carries that conviction forward.

Songs for Kashia Concert Tour: An annual concert in various Australian cities, featuring artists with lived experience.
The Kia Book Series: Children's books built from Kashia's original watercolour bird, helping children name their hardest feelings.
The Kia Exhibition: Curated visual art by people living with severe mental illness, alongside Kashia's own works.
Moving Through: A dance exhibition honouring Kashia the dancer.
The Mana Collective: Our music education and creative wellbeing program for young people and adults.

Songs for Kashia Concert Tour

Inaugural concert: 21 December 2026, Kashia's birthday.

Every year, in cities across Australia, we stage a night of original songs by artists with lived experience of mental health challenges, tribute performances, and Kashia's own music at the heart of every show.

"Songs for Kashia is more than a concert, it’s a gathering of heart, music, and purpose. Brought together in loving memory of Kashia Faumui, this evening celebrates her life through the universal language of music while raising vital support for mental health policy, research, and advocacy. Together, we sing for memory, for healing, and for hope."

It is a celebration, a statement, and a fundraiser all at once.

The KIA Book Series

It started with one painting. Kia began as a single watercolour bird, painted by Kashia Faumui. Today, that bird is the heart of a growing collection of picture books and illustrated stories helping Australian children understand and carry the feelings that are hardest to name.

In every book, a child is carrying something, worry, grief, anger, a question, a change too big for words. And in every book, Kia arrives.

She doesn't speak. She doesn't fix. She lands, she looks, and she stays.

Her quiet, complete attention tells every child the same thing: you are seen, exactly as you are.

The collection
The Kia collection spans four series and more than thirty stories, written for readers from early childhood through to early adolescence. Every book is grounded in real emotional experience and comes with practical guidance for parents, carers and educators including trusted Australian support services.

The image of Kia, in every book, is built from Kashia's original painting. Her bird. Her colours. Her way of seeing people.

Books where they're needed
Free copies go to primary schools, children's hospitals, GP waiting rooms and community centres across Australia. A retail edition is sold alongside the free program, with proceeds returned to the Foundation to print more books.

The KIA Exhibition (Visual Arts)

Art that tells the truth

An annual curated exhibition of works by people living with severe mental illness shown in partnership with established galleries, with touring capacity across Australian cities.

Kashia's original artworks & photography are displayed and offered for sale at each exhibition, with proceeds directed to the Foundation. A professional catalogue accompanies every show, and an art therapy workshop program runs alongside the exhibition, opening the creative process to the community.

Moving Through (Dance)

Kashia was a dancer. Moving Through is a dance exhibition created in her honour exploring what movement can say about living with, and moving through, mental illness.

The Mana Collective

Music education & creative wellbeing

Mana in Pasifika cultures, the spiritual strength, presence and standing that lives in every person. This program exists to help people find theirs. The Mana Collective is the Foundation's structured music education and creative wellbeing program, a safe, trauma-informed space where participants write, record and perform their own music.

Who it's for: Two parallel streams young people aged 12–17, and adults 18 and over.

Three tracks:

Songwriting: finding your voice and putting truth into words
Recording & Production: bringing songs to life in the studio
Live Performance: building the confidence to be heard

How it runs: A 12-week term, ending in a public Showcase where participants share what they've made.
How it's built: On a trauma-informed framework, with psychological safety and participant agency at the centre. The program was designed drawing on more than four decades across social welfare, youth justice and music management.

3. Policy Reform

Closing the gaps that failed Kashia

On 21 February 2026, Kashia Faumui while subject to an active Psychiatric Treatment Order in Australia was able to board an international flight and leave the country alone. No system connected her treating team to the border she crossed. No safeguard existed to trigger a clinical review before she departed.

She passed away in Lima, Peru, on 24 February 2026.

This was not a failure of any one person. It was a failure of systems that do not speak to each other. The Foundation exists to make sure they do.

Our reform agenda

1. A national communication protocol between mental health services and the Australian Border Force, activated when an individual is subject to an active mental health treatment order.

2. Mandatory clinical review before international travel for individuals assessed as acutely vulnerable.

3. Continuity of care between hospital and community. Working with the NDIS and state health departments so that discharge is a handover, not a hand-off.

4. Stronger consular capacity. Working with the Dept of Foriegn Affairs and Trade to improve support for mentally ill Australians in distress overseas.

5. Lasting legislative change. Pursuing recognition through parliamentary inquiries and Senate committee processes, and ultimately legislative amendment.

Reform priority

National Mental Health and Border Force communication protocol
Pre-travel clinical review for acutely vulnerable individuals
Hospital-to-community continuity of care
DFAT consular capacity
Parliamentary inquiry recognition

Built on lived experience
Every position we take is grounded in the lived experience of individuals and families because the people who have navigated these systems know precisely where they break.

4. Research

Better evidence. Better treatment. Better lives.

The Foundation funds and commissions independent research that advances the evidence base for people living with severe mental illness in Australia and that directly informs our policy positions. We fund research to use it, not to shelve it.

What we investigate

Safeguarding gaps for people under compulsory mental health treatment orders particularly regarding international travel
Hospital-to-community transitions the risk and protective factors that determine what happens after discharge
The therapeutic role of the creative arts music and visual art in managing psychotic and mood disorders
Family carer burden and the systemic supports families actually need
Early diagnosis and treatment adherence in Schizoaffective Disorder and related psychotic conditions

Our Research Roadmap

Year 1: Publish a State of the Field literature review on Schizoaffective Disorder in Australia, and establish a seed research grant program ($10,000–$20,000) to begin university partnerships.
Year 2: Fund a major commissioned study ($50,000–$100,000) into the safeguarding gaps between mental health treatment orders and border systems.
Year 3: Establish the Kashia Faumui Research Fellowship at an Australian university.
Ongoing: An annual State of Mental Health Systems report, tracking progress against reform targets and presented at the Symposium.

5. Digital Health Innovation

Care that arrives before the crisis

Mental health care in Australia is fundamentally reactive. Intensive support arrives at the point of emergency, the ambulance, the emergency department, the inpatient admission. It is costly, it is traumatic, and it does almost nothing to prevent the next crisis.

The Foundation champions a different model.

The Booyah App

The Booyah Wearable App is a safety-first digital health platform designed specifically for people living with Serious Mental Illness, with an initial focus on Bipolar Disorder and Schizophrenia. It works through two core mechanisms:

Anchor Sound: Real-time de-escalation using adaptive music therapy principles, matching and gently regulating the user's emotional state in the moment it matters.

Relapse Warning System: Digital phenotyping that reads early warning signals sleep, mobility, mood, heart-rate variability and identifies a coming crisis before it arrives, so care can too.

The Foundation's role
The Foundation's role in the Booyah project is that of champion, connector and advocate not developer. The Foundation will:

Champion Booyah as a flagship initiative of our Digital Health Innovation pillar
Connect the Booyah team with clinical advisory networks, health departments and funding bodies
Advocate for NDIS positioning of Booyah as a psychosocial disability stabilisation support
Feature Booyah at our Annual Symposium as a case study in proactive care
Support fundraising for its development program through our philanthropic networks

The Booyah App is developed independently by the Booyah Group.

How to get involved
Booyah is currently in development. To become a reality, it needs:

Researchers and clinicians willing to partner on clinical trials
Grant bodies and philanthropists who believe in evidence-based mental health innovation
Health services willing to participate in early pilot programs
Advocates and community members who share our belief that people with serious mental illness deserve better tools