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Mind Australia is proud to announce the launch of our new lived expertise-led practice and governance approach that can transform how mental health care is delivered.

Mind officially launched its Connection and Community and Lived Experience Governance Framework documents at an online event on Tuesday 24 September. Webinar participants heard how co-production and lived experience leadership has guided the development of these key documents, and how these approaches will be implemented to drive the transformation of mental health support.

The new practice approach (Connection and Community) and the governance framework provide intersectional, human rights and social justice informed responses for the design and delivery of lived experience led services. They have been informed by the development process for the Healing Place – Victoria’s first lived experience led crisis alternative to hospital. 

“The Healing Place has provided an amazing opportunity for Mind to step further into our commitments as a leader in lived experience, to drive new ways of thinking, being and doing informed by lived expertise,” Mind CEO Gill Callister said.

What we’ve produced - through the work of the national framework and then how it’s applied at Mind - offers a human rights and social justice model, not a health model.

“To now be part of supporting the development and trial of lived experience led and governed services is built on a very long legacy of investment and commitment to driving change informed by those most impacted.

“The Healing Place presented us with a unique opportunity to not only inform the design of one service, but set the terms for lived experience led service delivery and governance, and to contribute to reform across the broader system.”

Connection and Community is our foundational document and vision for all lived expertise-led services at Mind. It outlines the transformative, values-based practice that will shape service delivery and be enabled and authorised by Mind’s ground-breaking Lived Experience Governance Framework.

Ellie Hodges, the CEO of the Lived Experience Leadership and Advocacy Network (LELAN), said Connection and Community is about providing a pathway for, and commitment to, the delivery of lived experience-led services.

“Connection and Community is a different way of thinking about service provision; instead of thinking about what the offer is, it was flipped to consider what is the experience that people expect and have the right to receive when they seek support,” Ms Hodges said.

“Connection and Community has structures that speak to what is valued, why it is valued, what it means in service delivery and support, and what it means people will experience - and that became our connection point in this work.”

Mind Executive Director Lived Experience Katie Larsen explained the Lived Experience Governance Framework was an essential structure that needed to be embedded to support Connection and Community, and bring it to life with accountability, responsibility and a commitment to hold steadfast in the face of challenge.

“Working with our Executive and Board on this has been foundational, and we recognise that what we’ve produced - through the work of the national framework and then how it’s applied at Mind - offers a human rights and social justice model, not a health model,” she said.

“There’s a lot to consider in the application of the framework, but it provides us with a starting point of how we genuinely centre the person, not the practitioner or the organisation, when we respond to risk and safety, and how we hold those types of processes in our organisation.”

The webinar concluded with a powerful conversation between Alex, Frankie and Rica from Mind’s LGBTIQA+ Aftercare service. Tapping into their experience as peer practitioners, they provided examples of the principles and values of Connection and Community in practice.

A recording of the Lived Experience Governance Framework webinar can be viewed here.

Mind is a leading employer of people with lived and living experience of mental ill-health, recognising their unique ability to connect with and motivate clients and guide recovery. Find out more about Mind’s Lived Experience Strategy.