Inclusive Services
Deep Dive - Mental Health Lived Experience & Peer Workforce
From Stories to Systems—Embedding Real-World Wisdom for Lasting Change
Understanding the Lived Experience Movement
The lived experience movement has been instrumental in transforming mental health systems since the 1970s. Lived experience encompasses personal perspectives and experiences of being a consumer or carer, representing awareness and knowledge that can be communicated to others. This movement has contributed significantly to the push towards recovery-oriented mental health systems, challenging traditional paradigms and advocating for human rights-based approaches.Research demonstrates that lived experience provides unique expertise not learned through theoretical concepts but grounded in real-life experience. The global consensus recognises people with lived experience as integral agents of change, capable of leading and co-leading projects alongside multidisciplinary teams.
International Perspectives and Frameworks
Our approach is informed by best practices that establish clear principles for lived experience engagement. Growing international evidence demonstrates that the quality of life for people experiencing mental illness can be substantially enhanced when peer support is integral to their treatment and interventions. The global mental health community increasingly recognises lived experience workers as essential for creating relationships based on collective understanding, empowerment, and hope.
National Strategy and Policy Context
Australia's national framework for lived experience is anchored in several key documents. The Fifth National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Plan (2017) establishes a national approach for collaborative government action to improve integrated mental health services. The National Mental Health Workforce Strategy 2022-2032 acknowledges the lived experience workforce as an essential discipline in its own right.The National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Agreement (2022) has faced substantial criticism from consumer advocacy groups and mental health organisations who argue it functions primarily as a funding distribution mechanism rather than delivering the transformational system change originally promised. The agreement was developed without meaningful engagement with people with lived experience of mental health challenges, operates through disconnected initiatives without an overarching strategy, and perpetuates the fragmented approach that has historically failed to improve accessibility, affordability, and quality of care. The Productivity Commission's 2025 interim review found the agreement to be "fundamentally flawed" and "not fit for purpose," with consumer advocacy groups expressing profound disappointment that it represents tick-box programmatic funding rather than genuine system reform.
State-Level Frameworks and Strategies
Queensland's Framework for the Development of the Mental Health Lived Experience Workforce supports the development and expansion of lived experience roles across the state. The framework seeks to strengthen understanding and collaboration across the mental health sector, contributing to more effective services and better outcomes.Victoria's Mental Health Lived Experience Engagement Framework guides policy makers to engage more meaningfully with people who have experienced mental illness and those who care for them. The WA Lived Experience (Peer) Workforces Framework provides a comprehensive blueprint for building, embedding, and sustaining diverse lived experience workforces across mental health, alcohol and other drugs, and suicide prevention sectors. South Australia has established a comprehensive Lived Experience Workforce Program comprising peer specialists and carer consultants in rehabilitation and acute inpatient units. Tasmania has developed a Seven Steps Framework for organisations to develop lived expertise engagement frameworks. This practical tool helps organisations establish structured engagement with lived expertise while assessing current practices and policies.
Local Lived Experience Perspectives
Local peaks and advocacy organisations provide essential state-specific representation of lived experience needs and perspectives. These include Mental Health Lived Experience Peak Queensland (MHLEPQ), which advocates for systemic change led by lived experience of mental illness and suicidality, and Mental Health Lived Experience Tasmania (MHLET), which developed practical frameworks for organisational engagement.The National Mental Health Consumer and Carer Forum (NMHCCF) emphasises that peer workers play a critical role in transformational changes necessary to develop recovery-oriented mental health services and systems. These organisations ensure that local contexts, cultures, and specific community needs are understood and represented in service design and delivery.
Organisational Lived Experience
Within organisations, lived experience perspectives must be embedded across all levels—from governance and leadership to service delivery and evaluation. Research shows that organisations benefit from employing people with lived experience through improved organisational culture, enhanced recovery focus, and more effective connections with service users.Lived experience workers within organisations bring unique capabilities including the ability to challenge power imbalances, provide more equitable support, demonstrate that recovery is possible, and serve as bridges between organisations and people accessing services. However, this requires proper support, supervision, and recognition of lived experience as a distinct professional discipline.
Peer Workforce Perspectives and Needs
The peer workforce represents a specialised component of the lived experience movement, comprising both consumer peer workers and carer peer workers who are employed specifically to draw on their lived experience. Evidence demonstrates that peer workers can be as effective as mental health professionals in terms of symptom reduction and service satisfaction, while providing additional benefits not found in traditional services.Peer workers contribute to improved sense of hope, empowerment, and social inclusion for service users. They reduce coercion within services, increase human rights protections for consumers, and can contribute to reduced psychiatric inpatient bed use. The National Mental Health Workforce Development Guidelines acknowledges lived experience peer work as a discipline in its own right.
Service User Rights and Participation
People accessing services, people with experience of service use—whether referred to as customers, consumers, participants, or guests—have fundamental rights that must be protected and promoted. Under the NDIS, participants have rights to choice and control, individualised support, dignity and respect, privacy and confidentiality, and the right to appeal decisions.The Mental Health Statement of Rights and Responsibilities (2012) establishes that mental health consumers have the right to access high-quality services, participate in all decisions affecting them, and have their wishes and lived experiences taken into account.
Our Approach to Lived Experience
At Diverse Leaders, we believe it is not just valuable—but absolutely essential—to understand and embed lived experience at every level of the system. This is far more than collaboration; it is a foundational requirement for ethical, effective, and human rights-based service design and delivery. We recognise that lived experience is broad and intersectional, encompassing people who have navigated mental health challenges, trauma, disability, neurodivergence, discrimination, and systemic barriers, as well as carers, families, and supporters.
To truly create services that are safe, equitable, and responsive, teams, organisations and communities must intentionally seek out and integrate the voices of participants, customers, and those with direct experience, ensuring these perspectives are present from the earliest stages of design and development, through to governance, evaluation, and continuous improvement.
This approach is not simply best practice; it is a human rights imperative, aligned with principles that uphold dignity, autonomy, and the right of every person to participate in shaping the services and systems that affect their lives.
At Diverse Leaders, we work with organisations to move beyond token consultation, embedding lived experience expertise as a driver of innovation, accountability, and systems change. We help you build structures and cultures where diverse perspectives are not just heard, but actively shape decision-making, challenge assumptions, and lead to better outcomes for all.
Only by embracing this depth and breadth of lived experience can we deliver services that are truly just, effective, and transformative.
Our Commitment
By choosing this approach, we ensure that people, teams, organisations, and communities working with Diverse Leaders receive services that genuinely reflect, and respect lived experience perspectives as our standard practice. This approach recognises that authentic collaboration requires ongoing commitment to understanding and integrating diverse lived experiences at every level of our work. It ensures that our practice honours the complexity and richness of lived experience while driving meaningful improvements in wellbeing for people, organisations, and communities.
Why it Matters
Complexity and Diversity
No single lived experience can represent entire communities. Research emphasises that lived experiences are complex, varied, and intersectional. People hold multiple, overlapping identities and experiences that require different approaches and understanding.
Authentic Representation
Different layers provide different perspectives and expertise. Independent lived experience consultants can provide richer representative perspectives than internal staff alone, bringing broader understanding developed through years of working with diverse lived experience communities.
Power Dynamics and Equity
Multiple layers help address power imbalances inherent in traditional service systems. Lived experience expertise challenges existing power dynamics to promote more equitable, collaborative therapeutic relationships.
System Transformation
Meaningful system change requires engagement at all levels—from national frameworks to local community needs and individual service experiences. This comprehensive approach ensures that lived experience wisdom informs strategy, policy, service design, and day-to-day practice.