About Us

 The Problem We’re Up Against

Mental health care in Australia isn’t broken - it’s functioning exactly as it was built.
And that’s the problem.

Australia’s mental health system is shaped around two poles:

1. The public sector - a free safety net for people in crisis or acute need.
In theory, it’s there for everyone. In practice, it’s stretched beyond capacity and rarely able to offer the individualized, long-term recovery support people actually need.
PHN-funded NGO programs exist but remain at capacity, constrained by short-term KPIs and shifting election-cycle priorities.

2. The private sector - a high-cost option for those who can pay.
Also great - for some. But most Australians rely on private health insurance to make that care even remotely affordable. Average premiums keep climbing (the 2025 rise of 3.73% was the biggest since 2018), and over the last five years, those increases have outpaced wage growth.

As costs rise in both hospital and outpatient settings, people are forced to choose between affording life or affording the care that helps them live it.

And then there’s everyone else - the Missing Middle 

People who can’t access effective government-funded programs, aren’t “unwell enough” for hospital admission, and can’t afford private care or insurance.

In Queensland, for example, people have waited days in emergency departments for a mental health bed - some sleeping on floors or couches. Many are discharged without follow-up, dropped into under-resourced services, and left to fend for themselves.

This gap is real - and it’s widening.

Our system is bending under demand.

Innovation is praised in speeches but stalled in committees.

It’s easier to re-sign a legacy contract than fund something new - something built from the ground up by people who’ve lived the system’s failures and/or worked inside it.

That’s why The Manasa Foundation exists.

 Who We Are 

Founded in 2023 by Amanda (Mandy) Hirvi, The Manasa Foundation is a DGR-1 registered mental health charity reimagining the way care is delivered in Australia.

As both a lived-experience peer and current frontline mental health worker, Mandy saw firsthand the devastating impact of inaccessible, fragmented, and profit-driven services.
Her personal and professional experiences became the blueprint for something radically different - a model designed for the people who have been left behind.

 Why We Exist 

We created The Manasa Foundation because this brokenness isn’t theoretical - it’s lived experience.

We’ve seen people denied continuity of care because they’re “not sick enough.” (Hello, NDIS.)
We’ve watched loved ones released from hospital on a Friday with no safety plan, no follow-up, no contact.
We’ve worked inside a system that treats mental health as a liability instead of a human right.

And we refuse to accept that people must wait until their crisis is catastrophic to get help.

 What We’re Building 

We’re building a third way - a new sector that doesn’t force people into extremes.
We don’t replace the existing system - we bridge it.
Our model complements hospitals, NGOs, and private providers to create continuity of care.

We’re designing a service that offers real, long-term, dignified, and accessible support for the space where most people actually live - between surviving and thriving.

We’re developing wraparound, trauma-informed programs that don’t expect people to fit the system. We meet them where they are.

We walk beside them through the rough patches and rebuild with them in the stable ones.

We’re also building the infrastructure behind it - the data, partnerships, sustainable funding models, advocacy, and impact proof needed to shift the sector from within.
A national pilot for scalable, community-led care.

 What It Costs — and Why It Matters 

We are raising capital and building traction in a sector that desperately needs change yet resists it.
Innovation is applauded in theory but rarely backed in budgets or policy.

That’s why we’re calling on partners who believe in backing impact over optics - corporate leaders, philanthropic investors, government champions, regional organizations, and grassroots changemakers who know real reform doesn’t start in boardrooms -  it starts in communities.

When you invest in The Manasa Foundation, you’re not just funding a program.
You’re seeding system change.
You’re making invisible people visible.
You’re shifting where power, resources, and care live in mental health.

Mission
To pioneer a new standard of mental health, trauma, and addiction care - one that is accessible, community-rooted, and grounded in humanity, not hierarchy.

Vision
A world where w(h)olistic, person-centered mental health support is not a privilege but a right. Where systems serve people - not the other way around.

Invitation
If you’re ready to go beyond charity rhetoric - to back models that shift systems and support a team walking beside people from messy early recovery through full rebuilding — then let’s connect.

Together, we can build what should already exist — a system that sees, supports, and sustains every person in between.

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