This Mental Health Month, we’re celebrating the theme Taking steps on your wellbeing journey by shining a light on our lived experience workers, who walk alongside others every day.
At HealthWISE, we’ve long recognised the unique value of peer roles in mental health care. Drawing on their own paths to recovery, lived experience workers like Priscilla Green and Alicia Morgan offer empathy, connection and hope to those navigating distress. Their work is a cornerstone of our Universal Aftercare program, providing personal, trauma-informed support for people recovering from a suicide attempt.
“Lived experience provides a perspective that cannot be learned from books or taught in a classroom,” said Priscilla.
Our peer workforce uses their own experiences with mental health challenges, trauma, recovery, caring for others and accessing services, to support and advocate for clients, and bring about change in services and communities.
“The lived experience worker does not use their experience as a template for what others must do in their recovery journey, but to give hope that recovery is possible,” Priscilla explained.
“What makes someone qualified for this role is not just what they’ve been through, but their ability and willingness to share and transform their personal story – the challenges, the healing, the lessons they have learned – into purposeful and professional skills and expertise,” added Alicia.
“In essence, lived experience workers are experts by experience, bringing an informed, compassionate and authentic perspective that inspires connection, complements existing models and pushes for meaningful change.”
When people are facing mental health challenges, it is easy to feel isolated or disconnected and worry about being judged. Alicia and Priscilla say that connecting with someone else who has firsthand experience with similar struggles allows clients to express themselves more freely.
“I can normalise their feelings and thoughts, so they don’t feel so alone for feeling and thinking this way,” said Priscilla.
The pair also have a deep understanding of the obstacles accessing support, and can provide a bridge to other services that may have seemed inaccessible or intimidating. They empower people to add their voice to the conversation, improving outcomes while reducing harm and prejudice.
Lived experience provides a perspective that cannot be learned from books or taught in a classroom.
No two days are the same in this flexible role, but they all include building strong relationships with clients in order to understand their experiences and personal barriers to healing, taking a holistic perspective in helping people identify and reach their recovery goals.
Priscilla says that there is often more to the story when someone is suicidal. There can be socio-economic and environmental factors adding to their distress, such as unemployment, bereavement or being part of a minority group that faces discrimination and oppression.
“I will work alongside the client to discover what support they may need – improving their job applications so they have a greater chance of finding a job, unpacking the grief over a lost loved one they never fully mourned, or finding friendship groups with others sharing their identity,” she said.
Although life circumstances may still be challenging, Priscilla values the ability to assist a person to adjust their thoughts and feelings about a situation to develop a more positive outlook. She finds it deeply rewarding to watch a client who could not see anything positive about their life or themselves work hard towards their recovery and become more optimistic and confident.
Alicia has found that transforming personal experiences that were once a source of isolation, discrimination and prejudice into a unique expertise that is valued and purposeful, is healing in itself.
“Knowing that the years I once felt were wasted are now a source of meaningful connection and contribution for individuals and the community is heartwarming and empowering,” she said.
Alicia uses her strengths in pattern recognition and out-of-the-box thinking, along with her love for learning, in the lived experience role. She says it is a dream job that offers personal and professional growth, supports her ongoing recovery and gives her the privilege to walk alongside others in their mental health journey.
“For me, it’s a role that alchemises my personal and professional lives in a way that allows me to be my genuine, authentic self,” she said.
Knowing that the years I once felt were wasted are now a source of meaningful connection and contribution for individuals and the community is heartwarming and empowering.
She is especially proud to have the opportunity to use her voice to advocate for meaningful change in mental health service delivery, and was honoured to give input as part of the co-design of the NSW Universal Aftercare framework.
“Not only do I get to help consumers on the ground, I also get to represent the consumer perspective in order to improve the effectiveness and inclusiveness of mental health services,” she said.
Along with the expertise their firsthand experiences with mental ill health provides, our lived experience workers have formal training and use evidence-based practices to support clients. The peer workforce is increasingly being recognised as essential to the future of mental health care and the Australian Government is working to establish a National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Peer Workforce Association to strengthen career pathways, reduce stigma, and support the professionalisation of peer roles.
This affirms what HealthWISE has long known: lived experience workers are a vital part of the mental health system, and their contribution deserves recognition, investment and respect.
