Indigenous-led mental health service Wakai Waian to open Sunshine Coast clinic

Indigenous-owned mental health service Wakai Waian Healing is expanding to the Sunshine Coast, opening a new clinic in Caloundra in June 2026 that will add four occupational therapists and psychologists to a service that began in 2014 with a single laptop in a small room in Rockhampton.

The expansion is the latest step in the growth of the Torres Strait Islander-led organisation, which now employs more than 50 staff across Queensland and operates clinics in Rockhampton, Thursday Island, Cairns, Western Queensland, and the Sunshine Coast.

Wakai Waian Healing was founded by Ed Mosby, a proud Masig man and senior psychologist who was born on Waiben (Thursday Island), within the traditional Country of the Kaurareg people, and has family ties to Masig and the Masigilgal people. The service offers culturally safe, trauma-informed mental health care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, families and communities.

Mr Mosby said the new Sunshine Coast clinic was designed to better support local general practitioners and service providers by offering culturally safe assessments, referrals, and ongoing care for First Nations patients who otherwise face gaps in access to mental health support.

“People want services that feel steady” Mr Mosby said. “They want someone who understands their story and their community. We built Wakai Waian Healing to offer exactly that.”

Based in Caloundra, the new clinic will offer Functional Capacity Assessments, psychosocial therapy and counselling, NDIS support for First Nations participants, and telehealth services across Australia. It builds on Wakai Waian Healing’s existing Sunshine Coast presence in Nambour, where the team supports both Indigenous and non-Indigenous clients on the Country of the Gubbi Gubbi and Jinibara peoples.

Many of the service’s clinicians are Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander and have been trained through Wakai Waian’s own First Nations workforce development pipeline. The organisation has previously highlighted the importance of culturally led care in addressing long-standing service gaps.

Marking ten years of operation in 2025, Mr Mosby said the next chapter of the service was about “succession, sustainability, and spirit”.

“Our role now is to walk together – stronger, wiser, and always connected to where we come from” Mr Mosby said.

Wakai Waian Healing is a 100 per cent Indigenous-owned psychological and counselling service registered as an NDIS provider. Its key milestones have included building Queensland’s first Indigenous-led FIFO psychology service to remote communities, launching a First Nations workforce development program, and securing ISO9001 quality certification and National Standards for Mental Health Services accreditation.

Research recently published in First Nations Health and Wellbeing: The Lowitja Journal has highlighted the importance of culturally safe communication in improving mental health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples – principles Wakai Waian Healing says are central to its model of care, and which NACCHO has profiled.

According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people experience markedly higher rates of psychological distress than non-Indigenous Australians, with culturally appropriate, community-led services widely regarded as essential to closing that gap.