Mind has launched our Lived Experience Strategy (2026–2030), reaffirming our commitment to positioning lived experience as core to who we are and central to our ambition to deliver unified, community-based and visible mental health services.
Launched on Wednesday 2 September as part of an online webinar the strategy builds on years of work across Mind, One Door Mental Health and The Haven Foundation. It follows the successful delivery of our first Lived Experience Strategy (2021–2024).
The new strategy provides a clear roadmap for embedding lived experience consistently across how we design, advocate, deliver and govern our work.
“This means bringing the wisdom, knowledge and leadership of people with lived experience into our everyday practice and decision-making,” Mind CEO Gill Callister said.
“Doing this will help ensure lived experience is felt consistently by people accessing our services, across our workforce, in community and throughout the broader sector.”
Reflecting on our journey so far
Speaking at the launch webinar, Mind’s Executive Director – Lived Experience, Katie Larsen, said the inaugural Lived Experience Strategy helped Mind establish role clarity and distinguish between lived experience and lived expertise.
It also laid important foundations for our ongoing work, including:
- lived experience representation at all levels of the organisation
- foundations for lived experience-led practice and governance, trialled through expanded lived experience-led and centred services
- investment in research, thought leadership and sector influence
- strengthened workforce pathways and organisational culture
- alignment with national best practice and partnership
- growth from one Lived Experience Advisory Team to four
- growth from around 100 designated lived experience roles to nearly 300, and
- the development of a 60-person Lived Experience division spanning service delivery, organisational development, and leadership.
“Five years on, that journey has gone so far beyond what I ever imagined when we launched that first strategy,” Katie said.
“The lived experience centred service innovation, the thought leadership, the organisational direction, challenge and change. In reflecting on that for this launch, I asked myself ‘why is that?’
“I think it’s about many things, but I think at its core, it’s about collective appetite for things to be different and better across our mental health systems. This is not a new idea, but it is about a reconnection back to people and their stories and holding that at the heart of the work we do.”
The vision of our Lived Experience Strategy
Mind Board Director and lived experience advocate, Tim Heffernan, said the strategy builds on Mind’s progress while recognising that embedding lived experience consistently across a large organisation remains an ongoing challenge.
Speaking at the launch webinar, Tim shared the vision at the heart of the strategy:
“A future where lived experience is woven through all of Mind’s work, where our culture and practice are grounded in connection, justice and rights and where every community we serve feels its impact.”
Tim explained that Mind’s Lived Experience Strategy (2026-2030) is shaped by five objectives:
- Translating Lived Experience insights and expertise into consistent organisation-wide practice (impact)
- Delivering inclusive, accessible and responsive services (impact)
- Building evidence, demonstrate impact and strengthen accountability (innovate)
- Driving innovation, design and organisational sustainability through lived experience (innovate)
- Leading with courage, authenticity and shared learning (influence).
“These objectives draw from our learning so far, as well as the opportunities ahead,” he said.
“Like our last strategy, these objectives will be delivered through a set of deliverables and mapped against three pillars that reflect those of Mind’s Strategic Plan. These are impact, innovate and influence.”
Enabling change to achieve our goals
The strategy recognises that meaningful change requires a willingness to challenge established ways of working and remain open to new ways of thinking.
Mind’s Executive Director QLD, NSW and WA Operations, Denise Cumming, said staff must be prepared to question assumptions shaped by professional training if we are to continue growing and achieve the change we want to see.
“We need to continuously challenge [what we’ve always taken for granted] and then sit in that discomfort. And we need to be prepared to unlearn what we’ve always taken for granted, prepared to work with courage and commitment and new ways forward,” she said.
Denise, who was recently announced as Mind’s next CEO, also identified evidence and impact, governance and decision-making, community voice, and lived experience leadership positions as key enablers of change.
With the strategy in place, Denise said she was looking forward to building on Mind’s commitment to lived experience when she officially commences as Mind CEO on Monday 28 September.
“I’m honoured to be stepping into the CEO role at Mind, and it means a great deal to me that it comes at a time when lived experience is so firmly part of where our organisation is headed,” she said.
“As incoming CEO, this work will continue to inform and shape the decisions we make. Lived experience is part of our DNA – our commitment to delivering this work is to further strengthen our role as an organisation that drives lived experience-led service innovation through our leadership and impact measurement.”
A conversation-starter for the sector
While Wednesday’s event marked the launch of our Lived Experience Strategy and shared Mind’s vision for the years ahead, it was also an opportunity for an open conversation about how we, as a sector and community, can do this work together.
People attending our launch webinar were asked to engage in an interactive session led by Mind Senior Manager – Lived Experience Design and Development, Dr Carolynne White, and Senior Manager – Lived Expertise Workforce Growth and Development, Daisy Gleeson.
In considering a future of mental health truly shaped by lived experience, Carolynne and Daisy asked participants:
- Four years from now, what would you see in your community to show lived experience having an impact?
- What do we need to make this possible?
- Finish this sentence: “A future of mental health shaped by lived experience would be…”
The responses produced a range of insights and themes, which can be viewed below:
The conversations throughout the Lived Experience Strategy launch were also captured by Alan Chen from Shapeshifters. Alan is a graphic storyteller who drew a visual representation of the webinar's discussions in real time, bringing the conversations to life in a creative and engaging way.
Read our Lived Experience Strategy (2026–2030) on the Mind website, or watch a video recording of the launch webinar on Mind's YouTube channel.