Objective: Australian Rotary Health (ARH) was established in 1981 with the goal of supporting family health research in Australia. Since 2000, ARH has supported research relevant to mental health and mental illness. This article describes the early history of the fund, the reasons for the move to mental illness research, some examples of research projects that have had a beneficial impact and the branching out into mental health community awareness raising and stigma reduction.
Conclusions: ARH has emerged as a major non-government supporter of mental illness research. It has also effectively engaged Rotary clubs at a local level to increase community awareness of mental illness and to reduce stigma.