0:02 good morning everyone and welcome to the launch of the national lived experience peer workforce development guidelines
0:09 we have more than 1030 people who have joined us for this webinar today which is an amazing response thank you
0:15 all my name is lindal soper and i'm the acting ceo of the national mental health
0:20 commission i'd like to begin by acknowledging the traditional custodians of the lands in
0:25 which i am speaking today in canberra that is the non-all people i pay my respects to their elders past
0:33 present and emerging i thank them for their ongoing contribution to our community
0:39 including their incredible and vibrant contribution to all aspects of our culture and our growing understanding of the
0:46 importance of connection to nature and to each other i would also like to acknowledge and
0:52 welcome all aboriginal and torres strait islander people who are here with us today
0:57 i'd also like to acknowledge the individuals and families who have a lived or living experience of mental ill
1:03 health and suicide those who are with us those who we have sadly lost
1:08 and those who are bereaved by suicide and today i would also like to
1:14 specifically acknowledge the work of peer workers and lived experienced workers amongst us
1:21 it gives me great pleasure to introduce stephen satour stephen is a pittanjara yunkunjara
1:28 pooram man from the api apylans he's currently the stronger together
1:33 campaign manager for iuok a dedicated campaign aimed at reducing suicide within aboriginal and torres
1:40 strait islander communities stephen has previously co-chaired the city of sydney aboriginal advisory
1:47 committee and is proud to be on the national nadoc committee stephen we're delighted you could be
1:53 here to lead today's acknowledgement of the country and speak to the importance of access to lived experience of culture
2:00 and shared understanding especially in suicide prevention welcome stephen thanks for now for that introduction
2:06 um as you said my name is steven satore i'm pitt and jelly and conjured up man from embankment alice springs in central
2:14 australia today i'm coming to you from garamela which is darwin the land of the lara kia people
2:21 i would like to pay my respects to my elders and the lara key elders both past and present i'd also like to extend that
2:28 respect and to all of your elders and traditional custodians of the countries
2:33 that you're coming to today i'd also like to acknowledge other aboriginal and
2:38 torres strait islander people uh here today as well we know that our communities face some
2:45 of the highest rates of suicides in the country and we're affected by mental illness uh
2:51 in our families and our communities quite significantly in my work with ru okay and national
2:57 naidoc i am fortunate enough to have people share their their lived experiences with me on a daily basis and
3:03 that ranges from remote communities regional areas as well as urban
3:08 cities and obviously with ruak we're all about conversations and how do we encourage
3:14 and enable those conversations especially in the workplace so it's really hard to see
3:20 that talk of how we have conversations and the language that we use in these conversations when it comes to lived
3:27 experience is weaved right through these guidelines i was also really heartened to see that the
3:33 responsibility doesn't sit with one person it's spread out and everyone can play a role
3:39 in developing our workforce also the emphasis on the regional remote
3:45 areas of australia where service providers really struggle to provide consistent access for aboriginal and
3:52 torres strait islander people especially i was i think the one thing that really came
3:58 through in these guidelines was that it is a a co-working a co-production
4:04 effort to make sure that we get these guidelines into place and we can really
4:10 take the learnings from the consultations and put them into practice
4:15 what really rang true for me was that even though the who the what the where may change through people's geographic
4:23 um cultural backgrounds the why remains the same and building the thriving mental health
4:30 lived experience workforce is really really critical so i'd like to congratulate everyone
4:36 that participated and put in the work to develop these guidelines those people with lived experience that that shared
4:43 their experience and really um brought life to these guidelines and substance these guidelines i'd like to
4:50 thank you for all that work thank you for having me
4:56 you so much stephen for your inspiring words and for your leadership in mental health and suicide prevention
5:02 today is another important step forward in our national mental health and suicide prevention reform
5:08 the national lived experience peer workforce development guidelines are a critical piece of work that have been
5:13 shaped by lived experienced voices to the 787 people whose voices have
5:19 shaped this project we say thank you we simply could not have developed these guidelines without you
5:26 we cannot achieve national system-wide reform without lived experienced voices
5:31 and we commit to centralizing lived experience in every piece of work we undertake and every subsequent piece of evidence
5:38 and advice we provide the realization of these guidelines has
5:43 come about thanks to the compassion and dedication of the peer workforce steering committee
5:49 this team of mental health leaders has been brilliantly led by deputy co-chairs tim heffernan and margaret doherty
5:56 to tim margaret and the entire steering committee we extend our gratitude to you
6:02 the work of dr louise byrne and her research team at rmit has also been instrumental we thank louise and her
6:09 team for their tremendous contribution to the development of these guidelines
6:14 we also thank you leslie cook for your guidance wisdom and support in the development of these guidelines
6:22 and lastly i would like to thank the commission team including alex haynes susan haywood and catherine brown who
6:29 toiled on these guidelines with us the launch of the national lived
6:34 experience peer workforce development guidelines coincides with a significant and exciting appointment within the
6:40 national mental health commission today i am pleased to announce that carrie lumby has been appointed as the
6:46 commission's inaugural director of lived experience carrie joins the commission after
6:52 working as a lived experience advocate peer worker and social worker at troubled dog a mission-based co-designed
7:00 consultancy run by lived experience advocates and as a strategic advisor at roses in the ocean
7:07 she brings lived experience perspectives of mental illness suicide and substance use as well as peer recovery and peer
7:14 work across those areas the director of lived experience is a significant position that will lead the
7:21 establishment of a network of mechanisms to ensure that the diversity and breadth of lived experience is incorporated into
7:28 and shapes all of the commission's priorities the role will be responsible for ensuring the commission's work benefits
7:34 from a diverse range of lived experience perspectives including the full breadth of mental illnesses stages of recovery
7:41 and population groups welcome aboard carrie and we look forward to working with you into 22
7:48 2022 and beyond thanks so much lindell it's fantastic to
7:53 be here and it's just um congratulations to everyone that's put in the hard work to see these
7:58 guidelines finally coming to life thanks carrie
8:04 i'm now pleased to introduce national mental health commissioner kerry hawkins
8:10 to discuss the significance of the national lived experience peer workforce development guidelines in greater detail
8:16 explain their importance and outline what we hope they will achieve welcome kerry
8:23 thanks lindell and welcome everybody um uh to this historic launch of these
8:29 historic guidelines um and i would also like to thank everybody for your attendance particularly those in western
8:35 australia for whom it's still eight o'clock in the morning so well done on an early start
8:41 and certainly on behalf of the commission we are so delighted um to welcome these guidelines and i would
8:46 also like um to reinforce the thanks um that that lindle has given for the people that the
8:53 enormous number of people who've contributed to this piece of work in particular around the guidelines but of course
9:00 obviously building on the voices over the decades of people with lived experience to bring us to
9:05 this point and i'd also like to recognise the emotional labor um that goes into
9:10 contributing such a massive uh and uh reform-oriented piece of work
9:17 i would also like to particularly acknowledge the deputy co-chairs tim heffernan and margaret doherty for
9:22 leading the steering committee on this piece of work and of course as well um
9:28 the amazing research team we are so privileged to have an international
9:33 leader here in australia for this field of the development of the lift experience workforce in dr louise byrne
9:40 who in you know speaking about emotional labor i think this has been a labor of love for her for this is her her decades
9:47 worth of work um that has come to fruition so we have been so fortunate in australia to have
9:52 an international leader in this field i i wanted to spend a moment also just
9:58 reflecting on and thanking the commission for the work that they've done in leading this is a this is the latest in a
10:04 significant uh body of work now that the commission has led starting particularly um with the
10:12 hard work of the previous my fellow previous commissioners janet marr
10:17 and the late jackie crowe in building on a significant piece of work that started over five
10:24 years ago so we've had the engage and participate in mental health report we've had the consumer and carer
10:30 engagement a practical guide sit beside me not above me and of course most recently
10:36 i was delighted to co-chair the consumer and care safety and quality engagement guide so the commission has
10:42 invested significant effort in elevating the voice of lived experience and it's
10:47 for a reason we know that the skills and the knowledge that the lived experience movement historically has brought to
10:55 mental health reform we know that the knowledge around trauma and what we call recovery has come in large part from
11:01 those brave voices of lived experience who have worked uh tirelessly and often with allies in
11:08 the sector with uh organizational and professional experience to bring this work to fruition
11:16 i finally wanted just to reflect for a moment on um what i've what i think is uh sacred and
11:23 precious work that is ahead of us in many ways this is the beginning of the work ahead
11:29 uh we are walking in the footsteps of giants who have uh contributed so much
11:37 to bring us to this point and i don't know about anybody else but i feel so honoured and daunted
11:43 to be part of this launch because we all know the work that has gone before us and the
11:51 work that is ahead of us in honouring the efforts of the people who have come
11:56 before us and in doing so i just wanted to reflect on the people who are not here today so
12:02 the people who have not yet been invited to this table we know who they are
12:08 some are family members some are people with lived experience some are currently in hospital some uh have no idea that this work is
12:15 going on but we have yet to reach and to hear those voices and so i really want
12:21 us to i want to urge everybody moving forward to be aware of the hard work that is only just
12:28 beginning so thanks very much lindell thank you kerry
12:33 the commonwealth government has walked in step with the commission in each of the progression points of the national lift experience peer workforce
12:40 development guidelines and the commission acknowledges and thanks the government for its unwavering support
12:46 i'm now pleased to introduce to you assistant minister to the prime minister for mental health and suicide prevention
12:52 the honourable david coleman to officially launch the national lift experience peer development guidelines
12:58 thank you assistant minister coleman well thank you linda lynn good morning everyone it's really nice to be here and
13:04 it's particularly um good to see so many people um participating
13:09 in the launch of these really important um guidelines and and uh saying hello from uh
13:15 all corners of the nation so and i think that um you know underscores the significance
13:20 of what is being launched today um look before i begin i'd like to acknowledge the traditional uh
13:26 custodians of the lands on which we all meet today um and of course i'd also like to
13:32 acknowledge uh individuals and families who have a lived experience of mental ill health ill health and
13:38 suicide those who are with us those who who we have lost
13:44 and those who are bereaved by suicide and i welcome the many colleagues from
13:49 the mental health sector that join us today the production of these guidelines has
13:54 been a huge effort and i want to thank everyone who has been involved in that work including margaret
14:00 doherty and tim heffernan who led the national lived experience uh workforce
14:05 development guidelines steering committee uh and and lindell uh who we've heard from today the acting ceo
14:12 of the nmhc uh and all of the staff at the commission for their very comprehensive
14:17 approach to this work uh and most importantly i want to thank the many hundreds of people with lived experience who have contributed uh
14:25 people who care for those with lived experience who have contributed and have been instrumental in the development of
14:30 these guidelines the guidelines couldn't have been done without your work so thank you for
14:36 participating and for advocating on behalf of people with lift experience
14:41 and lynch experience is central to national mental health and suicide prevention reform and it's a vital part
14:49 of our mental health and wellbeing workforce and will be increasingly so in the future
14:55 um because a well-supported lived experience workforce will deliver an improved system the improvements in service delivery
15:02 will result in benefits for people accessing services their families for service providers and the broader
15:08 community and as its own very specific and distinct discipline
15:14 lived experience work has its own values principles and theories
15:19 that define it and define that work and the way in which it is practiced and will be practiced
15:25 more and more in the future there is an incredible uniqueness to
15:30 lift experience roles roles because lived experience workers have unique knowledge
15:36 unique abilities unique attributes that hasn't always and those
15:41 abilities and attributes haven't always been used um as much in the mental
15:46 health health system in the past as they could have been lived experienced workers of course
15:52 drawing their own life-changing experiences of mental or emotional distress service use and their
15:58 journey of recovery and healing um to support others and of course having been through
16:04 the system they understand the critical need to create opportunities for connection and importantly use
16:10 their expertise to offer hope for people who are going through difficult times they build relationships based on a
16:17 collective understanding of shared experience self-determination and empowerment
16:23 and they provide an important resource for change
16:28 because every lived experience worker is a change agent supporting personal change
16:33 in service users and cult and uses and cultural and practice change in the service
16:40 itself because of course the theme of so much of this effort is about
16:45 listening to people with lived experience and embedding those experiences across our service
16:50 system um and the qualities of lived experience workers um exemplify uh why their work
16:57 needs to be supported and embedded as an integral part of the way that all mental
17:02 health services are delivered now the national lived experience workforce guidelines are intended to
17:09 strengthen the understanding and collaboration across the mental health and suicide prevention sector and beyond
17:15 contributing to better services and ultimately better outcomes for people who access those services
17:21 within the sector as well as their families their supporters and their communities
17:27 and we the government are very committed to work to working with the lived experience workforce um to implement
17:33 these guidelines because the mental health and wellbeing of australians is a very high national priority for the
17:40 government now through this year's budget we demonstrated that commitment through
17:46 very significant investment in strengthening uh the mental health and suicide prevention system
17:51 to with the investment of 2.3 billion dollars into the national mental health and suicide prevention
17:57 plan and that plan is about delivering a genuine shift in the national response
18:03 to person-centered mental health well-being and suicide prevention reform and it lays the foundations for moving
18:10 towards a much more integrated national system the plan of course has five pillars for
18:16 change that will help australia achieve systemic reform prevention and early intervention
18:22 suicide prevention treatment supporting the vulnerable and workforce and governance
18:28 and today i want to focus specifically on that fifth pillar workforce and governance and the 202 million dollar
18:35 commitment that we made in the budget now this commitment responds to the productivity commission report and also
18:42 the national suicide prevention advisors final advice recommendations
18:47 to government particularly as they pertain to the mental health workforce
18:52 the the recommendations recognize the importance of our gps psychiatrists psychologists nurses and our allied
19:00 health professionals but most importantly also recognizes and supports investment in the peer
19:06 workforce the mental health workforce and the wider health workforce
19:11 are the most critical component of australia's mental health system and this commitment ensures that our
19:18 mental health workforce is supported to provide compassionate safe care which is of course a critical enabler
19:25 for system and service reform and within the two hundred million two million dollars for workforce
19:30 development there's 58.8 million dollars to grow and upskill the mental health and
19:37 suicide prevention workforce and that includes our three million dollars to boost and support the mental
19:43 health peer workforce delivering up to 390 scholarships and opportunities for professional
19:49 collaboration also includes funding to conduct a scoping study to investigate options on improving
19:56 consumer and carer engagement more broadly in the mental health sector we're committed to expanding
20:03 strengthening upskilling and supporting the lived experience mental health workforce so that
20:09 that workforce may continue to deliver uh the services to those who need them and indeed to significantly expand
20:17 those services and we're committed to ensuring that lived experience is central to the
20:22 mental health and suicide prevention system and it's the voice after all i've lived
20:28 experience that is so important in guiding us on the journey that we're on
20:34 uh towards a more compassionate uh person-centered model of care in our
20:39 mental health and suicide prevention system so once again i want to thank everyone who's been involved
20:45 in providing their lived experience voice to help shape these guidelines um the steering committee the national
20:51 mental health commission for its tremendous dedication uh in this po in this project
20:57 and of course our peer workforce who are true leaders in our australian mental
21:04 health workforce and who um we look forward to seeing having a larger and larger role
21:10 in that workforce over time because the government is committed to ensuring that these guidelines will
21:17 have an enduring positive impact on how we work with people who experience mental ill health right across our
21:24 menstrual health and suicide prevention system so lindell and everyone who's involved today uh thank you again for uh
21:31 for all your work it's great to be here thank you assistant minister coleman
21:37 as lift experience voices are central to the national lived experience peer workforce development guidelines so too
21:44 are they central to today's launch as often in the is the case in many new initiatives it is helpful to see how
21:51 something has been put into practice to appreciate the journey the value and benefits of its contribution
21:58 we feel very privileged to share with you today a special video on the critical impact of the lived experience
22:04 workforce told through the lens of lived experience by viv a lived experience
22:09 employer joe a lived experience worker and amy a mother of two who accesses the
22:16 services of peachtree a peer-led organisation that provides perinatal mental health and wellbeing support
22:24 but thanks to the team at peachtree for creating this with us
22:36 [Music] peachtree was founded back in 2011 by
22:42 two mothers who had been through a profound and life-changing experience after they had their babies
22:49 and who noticed a gap in service delivery and wanted to do something about it over
22:55 the years we have worked hard to develop our service delivery model to promote
23:00 and advocate for our lived experience workers and as a consequence now we're
23:06 running a really successful and thriving organisation [Music]
23:12 we now have over 21 lived experience workers spread throughout our
23:17 organisation from peer support workers to team leaders to program managers right
23:24 through to management positions as a peer support worker i have
23:29 lived experience of perinatal mental health challenges i bring my experience
23:34 here and what i've learned is that that actually healing is possible
23:41 and that in being on a healing journey myself and being and acknowledging that
23:48 that that's possible for other people as well it's just
23:54 incredible you feel so understood because they've been there they've been
23:59 in the trenches they've felt those emotions they've also found out that it's not always a
24:05 fairy tale story going into motherhood so it was nice to feel heard to feel understood my mental health has vastly
24:12 improved through being connected with peachtree specifically and and also that lived experience
24:18 a peer support model i've built up the confidence as a mother to know that when things are going quite rough that i've
24:25 got this and i'm doing the best i can and that's enough
24:31 by investing in our lived experience workforce we have a staff who are best
24:36 placed in their own mental health and wellbeing who have the right skill sets who are
24:41 able to provide a safe and quality service if you're an organisation that is considering embedding lived
24:48 experience into your service delivery model it is so important that you work from a
24:54 trauma informed perspective and you have the necessary frameworks of support around your lived experience
25:00 workforce that is going to enable them to flourish the future of the lived experience workforce is incredibly
25:08 exciting at peachtree we are committed to continuing to provide opportunities
25:13 for our lived experience workers to thrive to grow and
25:19 increase their skills and work towards safety and quality
25:30 [Music]
25:40 thanks very much that was beautiful uh we're now going to have um a panel
25:46 discussion for about the next 20 minutes um and so i'm delighted now to introduce
25:52 our four panelists i would also encourage everybody um
25:57 if you have any questions that do come up from this conversation we're about to have to to feel free and put them in the
26:04 questions and answers we will be compiling all of those and providing some answers um later on
26:10 so now it's my honor to introduce four colleagues um the first person is uh tim
26:15 heffernan many of you will know tim he was obviously the deputy co-chair
26:22 for the development of these workforce development guidelines but of course he comes from a very very
26:28 strong peer lift experience workforce background he's a deputy commissioner with the new south wales mental health
26:34 commission and works as the mental health peer coordinator with coordinator in sydney
26:39 previously tim has worked for more than a decade as a peer worker uh he's currently
26:46 also this is quite an important initiative of the commission as well and it's a good opportunity to highlight it um he is
26:53 co-chair of the steering committee for the national mental health commission's stigma reduction strategy i think that's
26:59 a vital piece of work that's underway as well the next person i'm going to introduce
27:04 is paula arrow again many of you will know paula she's the lift experience engagement
27:10 coordinator for mental health suicide prevention alcohol and other drugs program in brisbane north phn
27:17 she has a lived experience herself with mental health and aod both as a consumer and a carer and she's currently employed
27:23 by the phn as an identified designated peer role uh to develop the capacity and
27:29 support opportunities for people with the lived experience to actively participate in mental health and alcohol
27:34 and other drug reforms and i'm delighted i'm watching the participants and i can see that there are quite a few people
27:39 here from various phns around the country so paula's role was also established to build the capacity of the phn to embed
27:46 lift experience engagement in all aspects of the phn's commissioning process including working with funded services
27:53 to ensure this occurs along with establishing a regional framework for engagement with people
27:59 with a lived experience and the peer participation in mental health services network her role has also been expanded
28:05 to chair and provides secretariat to support to the national phn mental health lived experience engagement next
28:12 network or moline who is currently doing some exciting work with the national mental health
28:17 consumer and carer forum as well i'm also going to introduce
28:24 leilani darwin who's familiar again to many of you she's director of aboriginal and torres
28:29 strait islander strategy at the newly established black dog institute uh lived experience network uh she has joined the
28:37 executive leadership team to drive the work and um that they are doing to be a trusted partner
28:43 to aboriginal and torres strait islander community social and emotional well-being to address suicide prevention
28:49 and mental health leilani is already well known to the sector as i said for her work and leadership in suicide
28:55 prevention and mental health she is a powerful advocate for aboriginal and torres strait islander-led culturally informed
29:01 practices within mainstream services this has been built from her own personal lift experience of losing many
29:07 loved ones to suicide and her own mental ill health living with depression anxiety and
29:13 suicidality leilani navigates workplace obligations and her own well-being
29:20 finally i'm delighted to introduce megan still who is an occupational therapist by trade and the service planning and
29:27 innovation manager in sydney's local health district she's currently employed as the service
29:32 planning and innovation manager for the sydney local health district and megan works with consumers carers clinicians
29:39 and managers to help create mental health services that are built around the consumer experience
29:44 that enable people to exercise choice and are supported to realise their recovery goals and regain citizenship
29:50 megan tirelessly supports the development of the mental health peer support workforce her input has enabled the senior peer
29:57 worker role to be created and integrated into the mental health executive team she is a vocal champion for all types of
30:04 feedback on the consumer experience of service megan will not accept political tokenism but will argue for proper consultation
30:11 and true co-design couldn't think of a better person to be on this panel so tim i'm going to go to you first
30:19 we've allowed about um just so people know we've got about 20 or so minutes for this conversation um so we've
30:25 roughly roughly allowed about five minutes each for each of the panelists so tim and this is a question i know
30:32 that you're probably one of the people in australia best equipped to answer it's a question about recovery uh which
30:39 of course we know is something that um is a concept that was championed and pioneered by the lift
30:45 experience movement to which you're intimately connected and i'm just inviting you to reflect on
30:51 um the how you see the guidelines and the work of the lived experience workforce
30:57 uh in promoting more recovery oriented approaches you know this does represent a shift a
31:03 significant paradigm shift from a pathologising lens to a to a
31:08 rights-based recovery lens so i wonder if you could just reflect on what you think um how you think these guidelines
31:15 might promote this kind of approach thanks carrie and
31:21 thank you everyone for attending today um this is a big question and it's a
31:26 fluid question i think in a lot of ways um i think we have to understand i think that she
31:34 mentioned before kerry those people who are not here and and you know not everybody believes
31:40 that uh people um need to recover i think we're probably moving to to
31:48 to a system that is based around relationships and growth and
31:54 it is based on the worth of the human being from whatever perspective they come from and and however they they
32:01 choose to to live in their community and it's about supporting people to to realize who who they are or or giving
32:09 them the environment to to realize who they are and so in a way that's where the
32:14 recovery oriented services that that um wonderful work that leon craze dr leon
32:20 craze did around the guidelines you know i think it is important to have environments that promote
32:25 that therapeutic growth that um that that space for people to be people you
32:33 know the big thing about coming into this work and and work on the steering committee and just being involved
32:40 in this are the relation the relationships that that we've been able to form that i've
32:45 been able to come into a room full of full of people i know who i trust who i understand i can work
32:53 with who will promote my own individual well-being and we need to be working
32:59 working towards that sort of um that sort of system so i see like mental health here work and like
33:06 we're we're an echo system we're all part of this we breathe the same oxygen
33:12 we tread on the same ground we tread on um the ancient um and um beautiful ground
33:20 that we've um we're living on that that steve um acknowledged before and i acknowledge
33:26 all also all the other um aboriginal people and torah straight out of the people here today
33:33 especially eleni who's going to speak soon but um i'm probably
33:39 you know i think this is the realization of a well it's not the realizations to start
33:44 because we have to do this at scale this is this is a challenge if we re remain
33:50 the small workforce that we have that we still are we're not going to
33:57 fix that ecosystem fix the systems that have been broken allow the individual to
34:03 to to meet their potential when we're not going to allow services to to become
34:10 those truly compassionate therapeutic services that people need so you know it is about scale and i
34:17 think guidelines like this this one and i'll have to put it in a plug that was a
34:22 trouble about the southeastern new south wales p workforce framework and also the queensland framework you know we're
34:28 building the the structures that will allow our peer work to grow i had
34:34 you know i had the privilege to watch some videos of um that being which is the state uh peak here in new south
34:41 wales set out yesterday from the the statewide uh peer workforce forum
34:46 and and while i couldn't attend that to be able to come back and look at at the passion and
34:52 um the the vision of of people who who i've worked with when i was with the um
34:59 state public with with the ill or shall have a local health district just to see
35:05 to see the power that um pure work has we
35:10 must recognize that this is you know and we've had it and we haven't
35:16 been saying it the the people in charge have been saying that we are in
35:22 places of broken systems we've got the productivity commission we've got the royal commission we've recently had the
35:28 um joint the parliamentary committee commenting on on on the brokenness of
35:34 our mental health systems people with lived experience are the
35:39 people who can fix that and the lived experience workforce
35:44 is the essential part of that that takes it from being
35:49 that by my biomedical lens that hasn't lived up to all the hype
35:57 and brings it to a a um an ecosystem a restoration of the balance in our
36:04 lives and in the systems that comes from lived experience that comes from relationships
36:10 so i'm i'm not sure if that answers your question it's beautiful tim thank you absolutely beautiful and i
36:16 just wanted to pick up on a couple of things that you mentioned that i think are so important one was the issue of
36:21 scale um and i from from my perspective i think we've lived so long with the
36:26 dynamic of scarcity around lived experience and what does excite me of course is that um
36:32 as we move into um a period of growth and scale as you've talked about that potential for system transformation i
36:38 think is enormous and i i would also just um from my perspective i think
36:43 the system's not broken i think it's it was designed that way
36:48 it's actually working as it was designed and unfortunately um the design process probably wasn't didn't include people
36:55 with lived experience and i i think one of the key elements about this guidelines is that it does provide that
37:00 opportunity for system redesign to and i'm really enjoying the comments that
37:05 are coming through in the chats as well talking about the fact that you know this is a broken system and we we move
37:12 into this era of understanding the social determinants and what's required in terms of
37:18 structural competency in our workforce and understanding those drivers and i think that's something that the lived
37:23 experience workforce can do so well i think tim um i i just want to put a plug in here or
37:30 just to get your perspective on the family lived experience workforce as well of course which these guidelines um
37:37 introduce and and what what you see and for me i think there's enormous potential in the alignment of a family
37:44 carer lived experience workforce working alongside a consumer personal lift experience workforce do
37:50 you do you have any thoughts on that oh yeah yeah um i think uh you know it's critical and
37:57 it's all about it's about um that perspective that we bring to our
38:02 work and the people that we're working with um so often we we have used previously
38:08 consumer and carer as as the terms that would uh designate where we're coming from
38:14 and and you know into the mix i appreciate we have a whole lot of people who who have experience of both who have
38:21 experience of caring and who have experience of being a consumer
38:26 so or a person with personal lived experience is the language that we're using in in the guidelines
38:33 so um you know i think we need to be clear when we're working
38:40 what what what experiences we're bringing what lived experience we're bringing and you can never
38:46 take out the bits of you that are there you know that's ridiculous but you you need to be
38:51 focusing i think on on where you are so i have had
38:58 you know very rich um partnerships working with carers and and from that
39:03 consumer lived experience perspective and have often
39:08 um then borrowed or or learnt a great deal from
39:13 from the carers there and you know essentially though the the
39:19 carer p workforce are probably in terms of numbers much less
39:26 than than in consumer peer workforce but play incredibly vital roles in
39:33 helping other people who have their loved ones who may have a
39:38 mental health issue or a breakthrough in their life that
39:43 they're working through that that could support them to navigate where are what are complex
39:49 difficult and still very hostile often
39:54 systems that we have to work through you know and both of us can work to change those
39:59 systems to make them more compassionate and and so we can partner very effectively um i think yeah
40:07 thanks thanks tim absolutely and in in the interests of time i will move on but it's a
40:13 delightful segue um the concept of partnering um i think to our next panelist megan and we know that this is
40:20 essentially a change management exercise on a grand scale and of course that does require partnerships and and a change
40:27 readiness um in organizations and so megan i'm going to invite you now
40:33 to talk about um from an employer and organisational perspective this is a huge part of the guidelines we've had
40:39 certainly had a history in the peer workforce uh movement of um having people working in
40:44 organizations that are not ready um for them and it's been quite traumatic for many people and i think we should acknowledge that and that's why i think
40:50 these guidelines are so important so megan i wonder if you could just speak to how you would want uh employers to
40:56 use the guidelines and what are you hoping that they can take from the guidelines
41:03 yeah you're correct that the history of employment of the lived workforce
41:08 has been a fractious one at times and has really hurt some people just before answering i want to just
41:15 shout out to everyone who's online the joy that's exploding out of that chat is
41:20 very distracting and is so good to see people are so excited about this
41:26 um i would like to see employers using the guidelines as their primary reference point for guiding practice and
41:32 implementing and developing their lived experience workforce we've had first of all consumer
41:38 consultants and have now a strong lived experience workforce for many decades in
41:43 my health district and i take away some things from these guidelines that i think we could use in our own service to
41:49 develop even further the guidelines are easy to read they're easy to navigate
41:54 it's a very intuitive document and it clearly articulates lived experience work that people do
42:01 does a really good job of describing the similarities and differences in consumer and carer roles um if you're looking at
42:07 developing either or and there's a clear description of what's involved in lived experience work as well which helps to
42:14 set the groundwork for what you might be dipping into there's good practical guidance on roles
42:19 on training on human resourcing issues and some links to some sensational resources so if employers read things
42:26 that they're unsure about you can follow the links and find further information that's really helpful
42:32 a really key strength of these guidelines is the structure that they provide
42:37 services so if you're dipping into your first lived experience position or if you're
42:43 well established and have a good workforce and wanting to develop them even further there's a good spectrum of
42:49 opportunities in the guidelines to help you understand where you might need to start and i'm particularly fond of the neat
42:55 focus on integrating roles into policy and service reform i think that's a really nice above and beyond development
43:02 in these guidelines that everyone should take on board from the very early point
43:07 so the other thing that's really important is that the guidelines have some good instruction on preparing the
43:12 rest of your workforce and how to prepare um teams and systems in order to work with the lived experience workforce
43:19 and this idea of champions or allyship is really important in order to create
43:25 space for lived experience workers to really be able to do do their thing
43:31 uh as the companion documents come on board there'll be even more detail in there if you're wanting to develop more
43:38 specific and structured positions so what i'd like to see employers take from this is some real optimism about how
43:45 achievable this is this is not an impossible or difficult task it just takes a bit of thinking through
43:51 and first step for everyone is just familiarize yourself with the documents they're not hard to read it's not
43:57 complicated you could do a reading group there's many ways that one could sit down and
44:03 look and go through the material and understand it but if you all get a shared understanding at your workplace on what this means then the step towards
44:11 implementation will be a bit easier brilliant thanks megan you did an
44:16 amazing job of pulling so much into such a short period of time and i really
44:22 really like your emphasis on the fact that this is a tangible usable document we've you know gone out of our way to
44:28 say this is these are guidelines um and the the important part of course as we know is that is the bit where the
44:34 action part of it one of the um significant pioneers in the lived experience movement ron coleman often
44:41 talks about the fact that miracles never happen unless action is taken and i think um you know this is the part
44:47 where the rubber hits the road and so i i think you've done a great job of talking about exactly how accessible and
44:53 usable this document is thank you thank you thank you
44:58 okay now we're going to move along to uh paula
45:03 who um we've given her the the task of describing from a national
45:09 and local system level implementation how these guidelines might be used so
45:14 because um paula works in phn space and they are key uh to commissioning primary mental
45:20 health services at the local level and nationally we're thinking that this is a great
45:25 opportunity paula for you to talk about how you think these guidelines will help phns in particular
45:31 uh to commission services to ensure that their lived experience leaders and advisors play a vital role in the mental
45:37 health and suicide prevention systems and i think phns in particular you know we can talk here um more broadly about
45:44 both mental health suicide prevention and of course aod as well so um paula
45:51 i'm going to now throw to you and just ask you to talk a little bit about it from your perspective thanks
46:04 uh paula i'm wondering if i'm going to ha after those dreadful words you're on mute um
46:10 mike can you hear quite a few people that would be fine with that sorry about that
46:15 so i get to start again okay so i'll get the nice easy one but um
46:22 firstly i would just like to congratulate the commission um not only for the development of these guidelines
46:28 but the work that they've done with the consumer and carer stuff with the safety and quality and engagement and those
46:34 sorts of things and also um stepping up and actually walking the talk with the
46:39 creation of um carrie's position a director of lived experience um
46:45 i think um this you know when we when we talk about lived
46:51 experience workforce and peer workforce there's a tendency for people to think
46:56 of peer workers and that one-to-one um direct service delivery but when
47:02 we're talking about systemic change and those sorts of things we really need
47:08 to make sure that we've got lived experience representations you
47:13 know around the table as equal partners so um so i guess
47:19 if we just take a step back in a little bit um so back in
47:24 phns there's 31 of them around australia and they're tasked with um working on
47:32 not only the commissioning of services but um supporting the integration and
47:37 you know um no one misses out type
47:43 work that they um they're able to do at a regional level
47:48 and in 2016 uh the phns are actually tasked with commissioning all of the
47:54 mental health alcohol and other drug and suicide prevention federal funding which was
47:59 quite a big task what also came out at that time was guidelines guidance materials for you
48:06 know step care suicide prevention how they were to use the money for that but also a set of guidelines on consumer and
48:13 care engagement stating that um phns had to embed um
48:18 consumer and care engagement into uh the commissioning cycle and all of the works work that they do
48:25 um skip forward to 2017 so phns had to develop regional plans
48:32 and um and um i know just from my experience working with my own phn and we were
48:39 talking about you know how we get these guidelines implemented and megan was talking about
48:45 it but but the secret really is and if you go back to some of uh louise's dr
48:51 louise burns research some of the keys key things that need to happen is that
48:57 there needs to be executive level support and commitment if you don't have that
49:02 and you're in an identified lived experience role like mine you're banging your head against a brick wall so that
49:07 that's actually the starting point so um i think that with you know piece of work that we have to do straight up is
49:14 to really be showcasing um where it is working that you know megan's organization for example the
49:21 fabulous viv and peach tree um you know and i actually would just like to say that um
49:28 peach actually was a purely voluntary organization and a little plug for brisbane north phn but
49:35 we actually were able to provide some lead site or innovation funding to um
49:42 peachtree to build that evidence base for their program and they're now just going you know
49:48 it's just amazing where that's gone um i think too
49:56 in the regional planning process um phns were realizing that they really
50:01 you know yes they may want to engage but didn't quite know how to and um at one of the biannual meetings
50:09 of all the phns around australia um two of the four key priority areas
50:15 that came up was you know how do we better engage with people with the lived experience and how do you know what is
50:21 this work for lived experience workforce what does it mean and all of that um
50:26 and so then in 2018 the department actually um said that well look we need you know the
50:33 phns need some support and um and so what they did was um
50:38 funded the establishment of the national phn mental health lived experience engagement network um in 2018
50:46 2019 they released some peer workforce guidance material um and said in there that um once these
50:54 peer workforce development guidelines were developed we were to implement them so phns while we had some guidance
51:02 material back in 2019 it was things like developing and understanding of policies and programs
51:10 employment conditions um how to develop the peer workforce you know what are some models of practice
51:16 what do we do about peer supervision um what do we how do we ensure that there's appropriate supports for not only the
51:24 lived experience workforce but the organizations and all of these sorts of things but there wasn't anything really
51:30 around to how to um in 2019 uh we were fortunate enough in
51:37 queensland to um well there was a few of us and i'd like to acknowledge the fabulous work of
51:42 brook red and peachtree as totally peer-led peer-run organizations
51:48 along with a few of us in identified positions where we nagged our commission and you know brought
51:55 forward the research that um louise and her team had been progressively undertaking and said well look here's
52:03 this is what needs to happen so we actually went through a process of developing the queensland framework in
52:09 2019 which actually gave us that um
52:14 sense of we all know what we're talking about we're talking about the same language and i think that's the importance of
52:20 some of these guidelines particularly when we're talking nationally you know what what what do these roles look like
52:27 um what sorts of roles should a lived experience um
52:32 um what sort of workplace do we need to ensure that um the lived experience
52:38 workforce is you know safe and that they're you know able to offer quality services
52:45 um you know how can we ensure that you know just because i have an identified
52:51 lived experience with mental health doesn't mean that i'm the best person to say support a young male um
52:57 [Music] aboriginal boy for example so um you know
53:05 you know how do we ensure we um we look at the diversity and um
53:11 you know and make sure that we've got the um specializations and i think the
53:17 guidelines really dig a bit deeper into that as well the hr stuff um you know
53:24 well i think you know organizations just need good hr practices and then everyone should be fine
53:30 but things like understanding and really committing to things like reasonable adjustment are really important
53:37 um i i love the fact that the guidelines also and i did get a sneak preview so
53:43 that's one i'm saying this but um but look it um it's structured around from
53:49 commitment to co-production which is i think really useful because
53:54 um i know that there's a lot of us that have been slogging away at us i know tim
53:59 uh when we started moline back in 2018 i think you and i were the only people from the phn
54:07 identified lived experience roles um you know swing forward three years later i
54:13 think we're getting close to a third of phns but but these c words that get
54:18 thrown around um and not not the naughty one and not the
54:23 um infectious vaccine one but um commitment
54:30 culture co-design co-production um you know how do we general genuinely do this
54:37 and um i don't we need to wind up now but i a big plug to the um national
54:44 mental health consumer care and carer forum because we've molina's recently formalized a
54:50 partnership because we we want to work and really
54:56 demonstrate this co-production so we're working on some leadership projects because to kick all
55:02 of this off we need leaders not only in the lived experience space but also
55:08 in the broader systemic space so i hope yeah that's brilliant paula as always
55:14 you did a brilliant job and you highlighted i think the fact that the guidelines are hitting the ground running there are amazing pockets of
55:20 work happening at the phn level and happening in each of the state jurisdictions as well that will support
55:25 this work in the interest of time we do have to move on i just wanted to let everybody know we will go over by about five
55:32 minutes today i hope that's okay and apologies uh i'd now like to introduce our final
55:38 panelist leilani um and paula you touched on several
55:43 times in your talk there about the importance of research in in terms of
55:48 underpinning the priorities and the recommendations that come through in these guidelines and i think like leilani i'm
55:55 particularly interested of course to hear um from your perspective as well in in relation to aboriginal and torres
56:00 strait islander communities as well what the research is telling us in relation to these priorities that have
56:07 come through in the guidelines and certainly any any of your other observations um so leilani over to you
56:14 gary um yeah i mean it's it's quite interesting to watch this journey and and i've been quite privileged to work
56:21 with um louise and the team and um be part of the development uh of the
56:27 queensland um framework and now this one and actually just wanted to start off quickly with acknowledging all of the
56:33 team um who have been involved in the development of this piece of work which we're so grateful that the commission
56:39 has led and the steering committee as well so lena wang helena roenfeldt um
56:46 melissa chapman holistic castles leanne craigs and mark saunders i think if
56:52 there's one thing that's really clear about this is that it is a collective effort and it's really important that we
56:58 bring as many people as we can on this journey together to inform and better understand that um i you know that's
57:05 reflected in in how this was developed um through a genuine co-design process with nearly 800 people engaged over a
57:13 long period of time in different um channels and methodologies of engagement that suited
57:19 to ensure we could get that diversity um interestingly enough what's come through
57:24 there and has really kind of come from a 12 plus years worth of work of um dr
57:30 burn has been exploring lots of different facets of understanding this you know the use of language and
57:37 terminology don't we all just love how we get on those little points and it can be an hour-long conversation
57:43 um what are the similarities between the different roles and hats that we wear so kind of looking and understanding
57:48 consumer um you know personal family and carer responsibilities how they can
57:54 overlap and sometimes we do wear multiple hats so how does that actually work in in these roles and in the
58:00 workforce um and understanding the values that sit behind that and i think that's a really interesting thing for
58:06 organizations in particular to consider moving forward part of the success of
58:11 this from my perspective will be what do we actually do to ensure that we're resourcing up that we're elevating and
58:18 we're embedding the recommendations of these guidelines and many other really useful documents which i've seen being
58:25 shared thick and fast in the chat which is really helpful um because it's it's it's about how does
58:33 this actually come into practice now how do we support everyone um and and i
58:38 think to your point to carry on we've got so many people who are still kind of alone in their journey in their
58:44 workplace and and don't necessarily have a lot of support and we've got people who are really involved in the movement
58:50 and our our beautiful beautiful souls that we've lost and those that are still with us but i've been there from the beginning
58:55 really fighting and advocating for this change and inclusion um the work of christine morgan and the commission uh
59:02 in elevating this and all of the research and evaluation that was undertaken in her role as adviser to the
59:08 prime minister has led to a massive shift i think in the sector at the moment what we need to
59:14 be able to do is move this into action and ensure that we're including
59:19 opportunities to do evaluation around what i foresee even with fantastic
59:25 guidelines and accompanying documents probably some challenges challenges to
59:30 shift culture within organizations and structures that just probably aren't ready to
59:37 to really take take on what's been recommended even though we've got it here and i know that there are so many
59:42 of us that you know are excited and have this availability now to
59:48 to bring something to the front to share with our workplaces and within organizations around this is what needs
59:54 to be put in place having said that too and i guess just to close i i wanted to just highlight the
1:00:00 importance of um leadership and cultural practices and
1:00:06 governance and guidance in the work that we do uh you know you'll note in the document
1:00:11 right up front that there's an acknowledgement of the different uh lived experience definition that was
1:00:17 developed by the aboriginal and torres strait islander lived experience center at the black dog institute and released last year
1:00:22 it is different for us and there's lots of things that we um you know
1:00:28 have in play that that complicates our journey and and history uh still
1:00:35 comes out to play for us in this day and age and all the work that's happening and being led by nacho and other
1:00:41 agencies and pat turner and closing the gap means that i guess it's important for me
1:00:46 to remind you all that even through the development of this and through the work that comes forward it's
1:00:52 imperative that you include aboriginal and torres strait islander people in this i also encourage you to understand that
1:00:59 the leadership role that we have at the lived experience center is really important and we've got an incredible
1:01:05 group there reach out see what opportunities there are for connection doing a lot of stuff in the research and
1:01:11 evaluation space and i think just just one more hint thinking outside the
1:01:17 square of i guess the realm of which to space an area that you work in look where you can co-collaborate learn from
1:01:23 others who have done it a lot of those services and agencies report brook red flourish
1:01:29 um you know peach tree and many others have done this already so let's work together to
1:01:34 bridge that gap thank you thanks leilani and what a brilliant point to um to end the panel on
1:01:41 absolutely there is work already happening we have to work together it's a values-based piece of work that
1:01:48 we're doing and it's just much more efficient if we can build on the work that everybody else is doing
1:01:54 and i think also your point around the importance of culture and intersectionality and intergenerational
1:02:00 trauma are absolutely critical and i'm watching the chat as you're talking noting that there's lots of resonance
1:02:06 around what you're saying so lindell thank you very much and over to you to wrap up
1:02:13 wonderful thanks so much kerrian thanks to all of our panel members there that was just an amazing session
1:02:19 that concludes today's launch so thank you to everyone in attendance and once again thank you to our lived experience
1:02:25 workforce for your compassion commitment and leadership it is through your important work and the guidance you have provided in the
1:02:32 creation of the guidelines that we will achieve better outcomes for people accessing mental health and wellbeing
1:02:37 services their families and their communities thank you i would also like to say thank you to
1:02:43 those who helped put this launch together today including jenny muir and her team from the commission
1:02:49 the guidelines are on the commission's website and we encourage you to download share and consider putting them into practice in your community and
1:02:55 organizational settings you'll also find a stakeholder kit that can help you promote the guides if that's useful for
1:03:02 you please also register to receive updated information from the commission on the website as well
1:03:08 we will be working on the next favorite phase of this project and we'll be publishing these additional components
1:03:13 over the coming months thank you everyone bye
