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Supported Independent Living: Tips on Getting Started

Mo’s top tips for your SIL journey.

This R U OK? Day (September 11, 2025), Australians are being reminded that conversations about mental health shouldn’t happen just once a year. The theme for 2025 is “Ask R U OK? Any day”, which encourages all of us to make checking in on one another part of our everyday lives.

The need for everyday connection is clear. Almost half of all Australians (45%) will experience a mental health condition in their lifetime, and in any given year, 1 in 5 Australians are living with symptoms of a mental illness. Despite this, stigma and silence still prevent many people from seeking support. Research from R U OK? shows that regular, small moments of genuine care, such as asking a friend, a neighbour, or a colleague how they’re really going, can make a huge difference in helping someone feel supported and less alone.

A conversation that never stops

At New Horizons, this idea of constant support is at the heart of our work. For more than 50 years, we’ve been providing mental health supports across NSW. We know that people need consistent, trusted support, sometimes in moments of crisis, and sometimes in everyday life. So, we’ve built services that reflect that reality.

New Horizons is a leading organisation in NSW in the delivery of government-funded mental health support. Every day, our teams deliver a wide range of programs, including:

  • Mental health supports such as the Housing and Accommodation Support Initiative (HASI) and Community Living Supports (CLS), helping people manage complex mental health challenges and live independently.
  • Refugee specific Community Living Supports (CLSR), providing trauma-informed and culturally appropriate psychosocial support to refugees and people seeking asylum.
  • Youth-focused programs including i.am, the first suicide aftercare service in NSW for children and young people, ensuring support is available in the critical months after a suicide attempt or self-harm.
  • Commonwealth psychosocial support program (CPS) for short-term, non-clinical support to individuals experiencing significant mental health challenges. 

Peer workers with lived experience of mental health play a vital role in our support model, so customers feel truly understood and less isolated. 

Embedding trust and consistency

In the last year alone, New Horizons has supported thousands of people across NSW, from metropolitan Sydney to regional centres including Port Macquarie, Tamworth, and the Mid North Coast. Each interaction, whether it’s helping a young person return to school, supporting someone to find stable housing, or simply checking in with a customer on a hard day, reflects our commitment to walking alongside people on their mental health journey.

R U OK? Day is an essential national conversation starter, and at New Horizons, we’re proud to carry that conversation into our daily work. From frontline support workers to peer mentors, clinicians to housing specialists, our people embody the belief that every day is the right day to ask R U OK?

So this week, as we acknowledge the importance of R U OK Day, we also remember that the message doesn’t stop here. Which is why we’ll keep showing up for our communities, for our customers, and for each other. Not just on R U OK? Day, but every day.

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