Awareness is an independent group of people with personal experience of mental illness, distress or addiction who want to make a difference to the way mental health services and society treat people with lived experience. We meet on the second Monday of the month at 12.30pm to share information and provide a forum for discussion, and action on issues that impact the mental health and addiction communities. Some issues we have been a collective voice on include: seclusion, synthetic cannabis, youth issues, child custody decision making, crisis peer support, and the Mental Health Act. We provide feedback to the Canterbury District Health Board and other organisations on policy and practice, write submissions and organise forums and events. Membership for Awareness is free and open to all Canterbury consumers/people with personal experience of mental illness or addiction. Awareness and the Mental Health Advocacy and Peer Support Trust (MHAPS) work in partnership on many projects. Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/awarenesscanterbury