Learning from the Lived and Living Experience

Board Foreword

The Board of the Victorian Collaborative Centre for Mental Health and Wellbeing (the Collaborative Centre) is pleased to share its reflections from the Directions Paper prepared by Erandathie Jayakody. This report marks an important moment of reflection and renewal for the Collaborative Centre.

The Board engaged Erandathie Jayakody as a Lived and Living Experience Consultant to seek feedback from stakeholders on the Collaborative Centre’s work with the lived and living experience community in Victoria and develop a Directions Paper providing recommendations for future directions of our work. The Board sought to reflect on our work and to identify opportunities for strengthening our partnership with and commitment to those with lived and living experience.

Our intent was to listen deeply and learn from the sector’s perspectives on how the Collaborative Centre has performed in supporting the lived and living experience workforce and community. We also sought to explore options for fulfilling our commitment to embedding lived and living experience leadership at every level of our work. The feedback we received was candid and constructive; it highlighted areas where we have fallen short of expectations and where deeper commitment is needed to realise the vision of genuine lived experience leadership and partnership at all levels of the Collaborative Centre’s work.

As the inaugural Board concluded its term in August 2025, we were particularly eager to share our reflections and offer possible actions for consideration by the incoming Board. While we now serve as an interim Board until the new Board is appointed, we have commenced work on understanding and implementing the recommendations arising from this process. The report identifies opportunities to strengthen partnerships, build capacity, and embed lived and living experience at the heart of our work.

The Directions Paper was developed as an internal report, and we have been advised it cannot be released in full due to the potential of interviewees being identified and consequently have prepared a summary of our learnings and next steps in implementing the Directions Paper. We acknowledge the challenges identified while embracing the opportunities to strengthen our shared vision for mental health and wellbeing in Victoria and the leadership of people with lived and living experience in reform.

We extend our gratitude to Erandathie for her expertise and leadership in developing the Directions Paper and to everyone who generously contributed their insights. Our learnings will be central to shaping the future of lived and living experience engagement and leadership at the Collaborative Centre.

Summary of Consultations

The project involved inputs through interviews and workshops with lived and living experience workforce. This paper is informed by:

Key stakeholder interviews
Workshops with the Lived and Living Experience workforce
Meetings with the Collaborative Centre’s Lived and Living Experiences Advisory Panel (now the Lived and Living Experience Governance (LLEG) Committee)
Discussions with Collaborative Centre Lived and Living Experience Sub Committee
A desktop review of key Lived and Living Experience strategies

There were three key themes that emerged from the consultations:

The Centre can improve on its work of integrating lived and living experience knowledge with clinic and academic knowledge, including through expanding partnerships and drawing on its existing structures, such as the LLEG Committee.

Stakeholders highlighted that the Collaborative Centre appears disconnected from key lived experience leaders, peak bodies, and frontline communities. Consultations also clarified the Collaborative Centre as a system steward and a facilitator of knowledge rather than an authority on lived and living experience knowledge.
Finally, we have heard that there is a need to build the Collaborative Centre’s internal capability and organisational culture to facilitate connection and credibility with the sector.

The Directions Paper provided 25 recommendations to Board or the Executive under the four key areas of (a) Improve transparency and communication; (b) Strengthen connections and create dialogue with lived and living experience communities; (c) Build internal capability and (d) Work with a diversity of voices.

The Board has highlighted the following recommendations as key immediate priorities:

Implement a strategy for engaging with the sector that includes, site visits to mental health services (including regional and remote), observation of Mental Health Tribunal hearings and shadowing of Independent Mental Health Advocacy service advocates; builds partnerships with other system stewards to align roles and amplify initiatives such as workforce training to reduce seclusion and restraint; and hosts seminars showcasing lived and living experience-led innovations alongside clinical and academic perspectives.
Establish regular, formal meetings with lived experience peak bodies, co-led by the Co-CEO and Lived Experience Directors, with agreed agendas, shared documentation, and the ability for all parties to contribute to the agenda to enable long-term collaboration.
Establish a regular program of internal whole-of-organisation seminars, training and reflective sessions led by diverse lived and living experience thought leaders to deepen conceptual understanding and foster ongoing internal discourse on lived and living experience knowledge within the Collaborative Centre.
Co-design and deliver an orientation program for board and staff that includes foundational training on lived and living experience knowledge, recovery-oriented practice, human rights and mental health legislation, cultural competency, particularly including social and emotional wellbeing frameworks, and definitions and shared language related to lived and living experience.
Provide ongoing staff training in co-design and co-production to ensure these principles are embedded into all the work of the Collaborative Centre.