Who are people with lived / living experience?
Being a person with lived experience of mental health challenges means that an individual has personally faced and navigated a mental health issues in their life. This is considered a unique and valuable type of expertise differing from viewing mental health issues through solely a clinical lense.
Why is the lived experience voice so important?
Without the collective voices of lived experience, change in the mental health landscape is something done to us, not with us.
What do you get out of sharing your lived experience?
Sharing my lived experience is a bridge for connection; helping me cross to a path where I engage and influence others sharing that space with me. I help them, they help me and together we help guide those seeking to shape our world in the mental health space.
What’s it like to be part of the lived experience community?
I belong. I meet and move among people who understand me and my story. It is validating and empowering. It is supportive and nurturing. It gives me purpose and makes my life meaningful.
