Lived and living experience roles
Lived experience roles are all about using personal stories and journeys through mental health challenges, addiction, or supporting someone through these experiences to make a real difference in the lives of others.
Workers in lived and living experience roles
In the mental health space, workers in lived experience roles aim to use their personal experience to improve the health outcomes of service users or the system.
There are a variety of roles embedded in the sector for people to use their firsthand lived and living experience of mental ill-health, problematic alcohol and other drug use or suicidality to fulfil. People can also be carers or family members of a person with lived or living experience because they understand the challenges they face when supporting someone daily.
While having lived experience is a necessary part of the job, it isn’t the only aspect of the role. Whether it’s their own experience or somebody they care for, they know what it’s like to be an advocate or change agent. A lived experience worker has learnt through their journey and aims to apply and use that knowledge to benefit others.
Become a Lived Experience Worker in Queensland
What qualifications do lived experience peer workers need?
Essential requirements
Many lived experience roles have firsthand, lived or living experience of mental ill-health, problematic alcohol and other drug use or suicidality. If not, they care for a family member or kin who faces these challenges.
Whether they have experienced these challenges themselves or support their loved one who does, they have a lot of knowledge of how these challenges may impact somebody’s life. They use this experience to connect with others facing the same or similar struggles and advocate for a better health system.
Beneficial training
All services, employment and role requirements are different. Some have internal training, and some might not. They depend on various factors such as their resources and funding, organisation structure, core business model, peer team size, location and so on. The following training and requirements are examples of designated lived or living experience roles:
- Volunteering or placement in peer support
- Previous relevant work experience in the sector
- Intentional peer support training
- Our Voice in Action (Roses in the Ocean)
- Certificate IV in Mental Health Peer Work
- Hearing Voices training
- Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST)
- Peer Zone
- Counselling from a Lived Experience Perspective
- Varieties of online lived experience webinars and training
- Lived-living experience organisational readiness training
Some lived or living experience leadership positions require additional specific qualifications. Depending on the role, these range from Certificate IV to postgraduate qualifications. These roles will benefit from a good understanding of the following standards and guidelines:
- The Lived Experience Governance Framework
- National Lived Experience (Peer) Workforce Guidelines
- The Queensland Framework for the Development of the Mental Health Lived Experience Workforce
- Lived Experience of Suicide Service Guidelines
- National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Guidelines for Ethical Conduct in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Research
- National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards
- National Standards for Mental Health Services
Where do lived experience advocates work?
Many lived or living experience designated roles are employed by hospitals, community services, government departments, advocacy organisations and consumer or carer peak bodies.
A lived experience or living experience-designated role may include:
- peer worker, as consumer or carer (peer coordinator, peer recovery worker, peer support worker, peer rehabilitation worker, peer mentor, peer recovery mentor, peer navigator)
- peer consultant
- peer supervisor
- peer counsellor
- peer educator
- career consultant
- peer participation and engagement coordinator
- lived experience, practical support practitioner
- wellbeing coach
- peer art/music therapist
- lifestyle facilitator
- lived experience advocate
- lived experience group lead
- team leader
- executive director
- service manager
- program manager
- policy advisor
- project officer
The daily life of a lived experience peer worker in Queensland
A lived experience worker’s role is informed by a strong self-awareness of their recovery journey and how their experience can be used to inform their work. A lived or living experience worker uses this knowledge to support people in need.
When a role requires a variety of experiences, leadership and other related skills, there is no one typical day in the life of a lived or living experience worker. For example, a director or manager will have a different daily life than a career consultant, who will then have a different day-to-day life from a group leader.
Nonetheless, all of the roles need to be supported not only by the organisation they work for but the whole health system. This ensures they can focus on what the role requires instead of navigating through other issues caused by stigma and discrimination.
Despite these differences in position, many lived experience roles utilise the same core competencies as outlined in the Lived Experience (Peer) Workforce Framework, 2023. They generally aim to support the self-advocacy and recovery of the people they support, as well as work towards system changes.
They work collaboratively and inclusively to provide empathetic support through their lived experience perspective while meeting professional accountability standards and requirements.
Meet Zoe
Program Manager, Mental Health and Wellbeing System Reform (Lived-Living Expertise)
” I want to give back to the community because I wouldn’t have come this far without the help I had in the past to overcome my life and health barriers. It is really satisfying to know that people are benefiting from your contributions.“
Common questions about lived or living experience roles
Language matters and different fields have different definitions of lived experience, such as domestic violence services, prison services, and cancer support services. In the National Lived Experience (Peer) Workforce Guidelines published in 2021, designated roles have two distinct perspectives and ways of working and are informed by either:
- Personal experience of mental health challenges, services used, periods of healing/personal recovery; or
- Experience supporting someone through mental health challenges, services used or periods of healing/personal recovery.
A lived or living experience role will typically have accessed (or attempted to access) support services for themselves or their loved ones and may have experienced stigma or discrimination firsthand. Ultimately, they act as a bridge between people who need to access services and the organisations that provide them.
People with lived or living experience have a good understanding of how it feels to be in a person’s shoes. They can use their experience to articulate and advocate appropriately, with an awareness of the trauma this person may have experienced and how to treat them sensitively.
Through their unique understanding of what an individual may be experiencing, they can provide deep and substantial personalised support. They understand the different power imbalances that people seeking support experience and how that can impact recovery.
Depending on their background, they are familiar with the different challenges people may face when seeking support and are resilient against discrimination that they may face. This can be invaluable when helping people navigate support as well as encouraging them not to lose hope in their recovery journey.
Everybody deserves to feel heard. A lived or living experience worker sees the person they support for who they are and understands how difficult it can be to navigate the system to have equal and quality access.
A lived experience worker has the unique knowledge and skills necessary to help people navigate this system. They can utilise their experiences and vulnerability to encourage people in a deeper and more personal way. They can support people through different stages of their journey and help them re-discover hope when they feel hopeless.
Lived and living experience roles are expanding in the health workforce. Between 2016–17 and 2020–21, the paid lived experience workforce increased by 27%.
They include a range of opportunities at different government, non-government, clinical and community services, including support workers, project management, education, executive leadership, and policy development.
Helpful resources in Queensland
Looking to upskill in Lived or Living Experience training? Here are some recommended training courses/providers.
- Our Voice in Action (Roses in the Ocean): A foundational program for people with a lived experience of suicide to become involved in suicide prevention activities
- Certificate IV in Mental Health Peer Work: A course designed for people with lived experience of mental illness who want to work or volunteer in the mental health sector
- Hearing Voices training: courses available for people with their own personal experience in mental health or those working/volunteering in the sector
- Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST): This course teaches the skills to provide an intervention with friends, family and colleagues who are at risk of suicidal thoughts. Search for the ASIST training on Google to find an accredited provider near you.
- Lived Experience Training: Provides best practice, evidence-informed understanding for and about Lived Experience workforces
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