If your organisation is seeking to engage individuals with lived and living experience for consultation, collaboration or co-design, this module provides an introduction to engagement models, support structures, power dynamics, considerations and a check-list to support planning. 

Learning objectives:

• Understand the foundations of lived experience engagement
• Identify a range of models for lived experience engagement to meet different consultation outcomes
• Apply best practice approaches for lived experience engagement
• Develop planning strategies for trauma-informed, safe and appropriate lived experience engagement
• Navigate power dynamics and support structures in lived experience engagement

Module duration 45 minutes

Once purchased you will have access to this module for 6 months

0.5 RANZCP CPD points per module or 2.5 CPD points for all 5 modules (Activity code: ED000031) and 5.0 ACMHN CPE points.

5 x 30 minute modules

Total duration 2.5 hours. 

Liz Asser explores going beyond supervision in the lived experience (LE) workforce.

Supervision is accepted as a means of supporting and building capacity for reflective practice and continuous improvement. LE Expertise is needed at all levels of an organisation. With expectations clearly articulated in policy and funding documents, LE expertise is needed at all levels of an organisation. 

So how do we support AND mentor LE Workforce members to become leaders, representatives, and informed contributors at the executive and strategic governance levels? What does LE Governance look like and how do we maintain commitment to the values of what it means to be Peer?

Liz Asser's experience in project management and support, and in suicide prevention and mental health service delivery are core to current roles where lived experience expertise are sought to guide design and engage stakeholders. Liz's recent work mentoring Peer Workers to deliver Lived Experience Practice in Community and Public Health settings has led to the establishment of Reflective Practice Mentoring with Peer Workers throughout Australia. Liz also provides Psychotherapy for NDIS and Community clients.

Webinar duration 51 minutes

Ideally, before employing people who work from their Lived/Living Experience, an organisation has a clear understanding of what Peer Work is and how they can best support employees in these roles.

Organisational readiness is a term we give to the foundational preparation of an organisation to recruit, onboard, support and sustain the employment of a Peer Worker. Of course, this may provide a sound basis for ongoing employment, but to be certain of tailoring supports to suit an individual, the conversation is live and ongoing.

This webinar will examine some of the proven methods which ensure workforce safety and a sense of job satisfaction.

Presented by: Liz Asser, Lived Experience Practitioner, Peer Mentor and Trainer of Mental Health Support Workers

Research shows that a fundamental element for successful establishment of lived experience roles is organisation commitment and action to create an environment where lived experience roles are fully understood, genuinely valued and authorised to operate in line with consumer and family/carer values. This webinar will explore a range of organisational activities that welcome and embed the lived experience workforce including recruitment processes, role descriptions and policies.

Discipline specific supervision and training are also required to ensure that the organisation is ready to employ any consumer and family carer role. This includes training for management and other disciplines which can uncover some of the complexities unique to working as a person with lived experience within the mental health sector and in the family/carer workforce in particular.

Presented by Susan Preece, Family/Carer Consultant

Webinar duration 55 minutes

These six modules explore each of the partnership standards within the Practical Guide for Working with Carers of People with a Mental Illness. 

Recovery-oriented practice and service delivery recognises the unique role of personal and family relationships in promoting wellbeing, providing care, and fostering recovery across the life span, and recognises the needs of families and support givers themselves. These modules and guide provide an overview of key strategies to support engagement with carers. 

Duration 6 x 30 minute modules

With Healthscope, The Sydney Clinic and Lived Experience Australia

This webinar will explore strategies for engaging your consumer representatives, developing programs and governance considerations. 

We will share strategies to build into your existing programs or for developing a new program using a consistent and supportive framework for staff, consumers and carers with a trauma informed approach.

Webinar duration 53 minutes

Lived Experience Frameworks are being created by many organisations as a way of implementing the National Mental Health Commission Lived Experience Workforce Guidelines.

How can stakeholders participate in this process and ensure that their voice is heard, and reflected in the actions of the organisation?

Liz Asser's experience in project management and support, and in suicide prevention and mental health service delivery are core to current roles where lived experience expertise are sought to guide design and engage stakeholders.

Liz's recent work mentoring Peer Workers to deliver Lived Experience Practice in Community and Public Health settings has led to the establishment of Reflective Practice Mentoring with Peer Workers throughout Australia. Liz also provides Psychotherapy for NDIS and Community clients.

Liz Asser is a skilled researcher, author and presenter, Liz offers consultancy and supervision services across human service oriented professional settings. Having lived and worked in First Nations' Communities for more than 20 years, Liz actively seeks Makarrata to achieve truth telling and unification of Australians in recognition of our history and determination of our future.

Webinar duration 45 minutes

The webinar explores the topic of intersectionality and how it relates to mental health and multicultural and multifaith LGBTQIA+ communities. Participants will be guided to understand intersectionality and its origin, and the mental health impact of experiencing intersecting marginalities on multicultural and multifaith LGBTQIA+ communities. 

 The webinar uses both personal narratives and case studies to highlight some practical ways for clinicians/practitioners to incorporate an intersectional lens when working with diverse communities.

 Hosted by Lived Experience Australia
Presented by Budi Sudarto

Budi Sudarto (they/he) is the Director of Ananda Training & Consultancy, a boutique agency specialising in intersectionality, inclusion, and justice. Budi came to Australia in 1998 as an international student, and they have been actively involved in Melbourne's LGBTQIA+ communities for over 20 years. Budi brought their knowledge and passion to initiate change through meaningful conversation, delivered with intent and a sense of humour to maximise impact.

Webinar duration 42 minutes

This Webinar begins with some of the challenges within knowing if we are using ‘trauma informed’ practices and how subjective the experience of ‘trauma’ can be for many people and using a one size fits all approach can be problematic. We briefly touch on the similarities in processing and responses between people who have autism and those who have experienced complex trauma and life changing events. We will also touch on the ‘undiagnosed’ population within mental health services. We will then move on to explore together what are some of the most effective approaches we know, for working with people who have autism. It will then be argued that these easy to understand and apply approaches is actually the ‘gold star’ of trauma informed relationships and approaches. A few minutes will be spent examining how each of us can make small changes in our approaches and understanding which will enhance our own ‘trauma informed skill set’

Presented by Trish Tran, NDIS Recovery Coach, Facilitator & Practitioner

Trish has a lived experience management background, which includes working in senior peer support and peer coordinator roles. She currently works within the NDIS as a Recovery Coach. Trish is an Alternatives to Suicide Group Facilitator and Trainer, a Personal Medicine Coach and Trainer, a registered Circle of Security Parenting facilitator, a registered Protective Behaviours practitioner. Trish also has a dual role within the WA Recovery College Alliance as a Lived Experience Educator and as an Educator Trainer. Trish is also the Lived Experience Expert involved in research currently being conducted at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, aimed at mapping what Recovery Components are present when a person can regain control of their lives post suicidal experiences. Trish is passionate about seeing people as people and not labels and believes that only by finding common ground with each other can we truly reach for the stars and achieve greatness in health care reform.

Webinar duration 44 minutes

This webinar explores some of the diverse frameworks which people hold and use to explain and live within internal experiences. We will touch on some common reactions when service providers attempt to use a DSM framework to explain their experiences and how this ‘language gap’ can be counter-productive in developing therapeutic relationships and promoting personal recovery.

We then delve into some of the common concerns around using the individual’s preferred framework when discussing their experiences/symptoms. From there, we will examine some of the challenges in promoting personal recovery using biomedical approaches (language), if this is not the person’s framework of reference. Finally we will explore some LE stories of personal recovery and how this occurs within the person’s internal framework of reference.

It will then be argued that Services must become ‘multilingual’ in their use of different frameworks in order to promote personal recovery and pathways to a ‘meaningful living’ for service users

Hosted by Emily Unity, Lived Experience Australia.
Presented by Trish Tran, NDIS Recovery Coach, Facilitator & Practitioner

Trish has a lived experience management background, which includes working in senior peer support and peer coordinator roles. She currently works within the NDIS as a Recovery Coach. Trish is an Alternatives to Suicide Group Facilitator and Trainer, a Personal Medicine Coach and Trainer, a registered Circle of Security Parenting facilitator, a registered Protective Behaviours practitioner. Trish also has a dual role within the WA Recovery College Alliance as a Lived Experience Educator and as an Educator Trainer. Trish is also the Lived Experience Expert involved in research currently being conducted at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, aimed at mapping what Recovery Components are present when a person can regain control of their lives post suicidal experiences. Trish is passionate about seeing people as people and not labels and believes that only by finding common ground with each other can we truly reach for the stars and achieve greatness in health care reform.

Webinar duration 50 minutes

This webinar presented by Emily Unity explores how the intersection of culture and mental health is often overlooked, how can we be more sensitive to people with a mental illness from diverse cultural backgrounds. 

Emily Unity is a mental health professional and peer worker. They are also a queer, culturally diverse, and neurodiverse young person. Emily is the founder of Multicultural Minds, a platform to raise awareness of multicultural mental health. They have lived experiences of mental health, disability, homelessness, suicide, and being a carer from a refugee/migrant background. They were recently the Mental Health Advocate of the Year, Youth of the Year, and Young Non-Binary Person of the Year.

Webinar duration 38 minutes

This webinar series supports staff, practitioners and hospitals to understand the benefits of, and develop strong consumer and carer inclusion, according to Standard 2. They are also offer great tips for other mental health organisations on how to engage with consumers and carers in service development, delivery and evaluation.

5 x webinars, approximately 38 minutes per webinar