South Australia’s peak body for Lived Experience (LEx), the Lived Experience Leadership and Advocacy Network (LELAN) in partnership with University of South Australia’s (UniSA) Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Research and Education Group (MHSPR) have launched the findings of the Activating Lived Experience Leadership (ALEL) project.
Minister for Health and Wellbeing, Stephen Wade, officially launched the findings of this landmark project on Wednesday, 4th August 2021. In his speech Minister Wade commended the ALEL project team, the project advisory group, and all contributors for diligently bringing the work to life.
“I very much look forward to observing the transformative systems change that will spring from this work, and all the benefits it will bring for those who rely on the best outcomes from our mental health system” said Minster Wade.
The two-year ALEL project was funded as part of our 2019 Discovery Grant round and is the most significant investment to date in this area of inquiry and action in South Australia. The purpose of the project was to look at how lived experience (LEx) advocacy and leadership embedded within the mental health and social sectors can be defined, recognised, and utilised in South Australia.
“By bringing system, sector, consumer and carer leaders together we have identified the change needed for lived experience leadership to thrive and have impact. Crucially, this future has been led and developed by, for and with the peer community at every level” said Ellie Hodges, Executive Director of LELAN.
The launch included the release of three key outputs: the roadmap for strengthening lived experience leadership for transformative systems change, the model of lived experience leadership, and the consensus statement. The roadmap and the model were both informed by research and co-designed with community over the last two years. While the consensus statement is the result of bringing together people with lived experience and more than 40 senior executives across government and non-government organisations to determine eight key actions we can all take to embed, and leverage lived experience leadership in systems change efforts.
In light of the Victorian Royal Commission into Mental Health and with the announcement in March of a $10 million Australian Government investment to establish a national Academy of LIVed Experience (ALIVE), the findings of the ALEL project present an opportunity for South Australia to be at the forefront of mental health systems reform.