Jess Edwards (she/her) lives and works on the lands of the Bunurong people in Gippsland’s Bass Coast Region. She brings a lived experience of mental ill health, trauma, chronic illness and disability. Her early experiences of delayed diagnosis, medical gaslighting, and being told “it’s all in your head” fuelled her determination to advocate for person-centred, holistic health and wellbeing supports and stronger recognition of people’s rights.

Jess has demonstrated her commitment to ethical and values driven practice including social justice, integrity, mutuality and equity, via service in community, social work and volunteer work for twenty plus years. Her advocacy centres on authentic co-design, the value of lived expertise, and building services that reflect the needs of those who use them.

Jess is an experienced facilitator, mentor and lifelong learner focused on building connection and strengthening capacity through participatory methods.

2026- LLE Consultant & Supervisor

• Working on National LLE Maturity Model
• Providing LLE discipline supervision for solo LLEW across Australia.
• Co-design and Community Engagement.

2026-2023 Lived Experience Officer / Project Officer Mental Health Reform - Gippsland Primary Health Network.

• Lead the Lived Experience Program at the PHN, working from a co-designed action plan.
• Established Gippsland's Leaders LLEW Network.
• Mentoring to the Lived and Living Experience Workforce (LLEW) in Local Area.
• Engagement with State/ National PHN LLE working groups such as Mental Health Lived Experience Engagement Network (MHLEEN) and Lived Experience Working Group (LEWG)
• Leading LLE Education across the organisation and for Gippsland Region.

Previously held roles across Mental Health, AOD, community health & support and Education from a Social Work Discipline Perspective.

I currently work as a Lived/Living Experience Consultant and Supervisor. I utilise my lived expertise to contribute to system reform and ensures lived and living experience remains at the heart of service design and evaluation. I work alongside Primary Health and Community Services and offers discipline specific supervision to those working in the LLE space.

I currently coordinate the Mental Health Professionals Network (MHPN) - Lived and Living Experience practitioners’ network online.

In 2025, I received a Mental Health Victoria, Strengthening Intersectionality in the Lived/Living Experience Workforce Grant and have been part of a Community of Practice focussed on complexity of doing lived and living experience work across intersecting identities (SID-LLEW)

Over the past five years, I have undertaken several relevant trainings including:

Everyday Advocacy and Leadership skills for LLE (current 2026) Lived Experience Training.

Co-Design with Care, Beyond Sticky Notes, 2026.

Alt2SU: When Conversations Turn to Suicide Training, 2024

Mentoring Peer Workers and Lived Experience Practice Expertise, April 2025, Liz Asser Consultancy.

World Health Organisation (WHO) Quality Rights training on “Mental health, recovery and community inclusion, 2025-2026

Bachelor of Social Work (Latrobe University)

Diploma of Alcohol and other Drug Studies (Holmesglen Tafe)

*please note this is not a full list.

My approach to supervision is underpinned by the following guiding Principles:

• LLE values: mutuality, hope, self‑determination, human rights, trauma‑aware practice.
• Systems thinking: recognise patterns, interdependencies, power structures, and leverage points across the mental health ecosystem.
• Role integrity: supervision protects the distinctiveness of LLE practice and prevents co‑option into clinical or compliance‑driven models.
• Wellbeing & sustainability: supervision supports identity safety, emotional load, and long‑term workforce retention.
• Curiosity & Learning: approaching with an open and curious mind, that learning is a two way street.
• Strengths based: focused on strength-based approach.
• Care & Connection: an increased awareness of the need for support and connection for sole LLE workers
• Intersecting Identities' & Intersectionality: Recognising the importance of seeing the whole person and how the impacts and aspects of a person’s identity can expose them to overlapping forms of discrimination and marginalisation shaping their place and view of the world.

My approach to supervision has been informed by my:

• LLE practice background
• Experience in Supervision practice (across MDT teams, Clinical (Social Work) and LLE)
• Skills in reflective practice, trauma‑aware approaches, and rights‑based frameworks
• Working knowledge of systems thinking concepts
• Access to my own LLE‑specific supervision
• Engagement with Community of Practice and National Networks.