Working it Out Together: The Lived & Living Experience Research Toolkit Project

About this project

Working it out together is a Lived Experience-led research project that offers a practical roadmap for bringing Lived and Living Experience meaningfully and consistently into every stage of mental health and wellbeing research.

Developed by Wellways Australia in partnership with the Victorian Collaborative Centre for Mental Health and Wellbeing and La Trobe University, the project responds to a long-recognised gap: we know Lived and Living Experience must shape research, but many teams still ask how to do this well in practice.

Working it out together provides clear tools, reflective prompts and real-world examples to support researchers, services and communities to “work it out together” — from early concept development through to dissemination and impact.

What this project offers

Across three phases, Working it out together has produced a suite of resources that are:

Lived Experience-led and co-produced — grounded in the leadership and expertise of people with Lived and Living Experience, working in partnership with researchers and services.
Practical and modular — designed so teams can pick up individual tools, exercises or sections and adapt them to their own project needs.
Evidence-informed — built on project learnings, sector insights and the research literature.
Accountability-focused — supporting teams to track how Lived and Living Experience influences decisions, methods and outcomes over time.

Together, these resources help research teams move beyond good intentions to concrete, transparent practice.

About each tool:

Concise workbook

The concise workbook for Lived Experience-centred mental health and wellbeing research practice brings together the most useful tools and exercises from the full Working it out together toolkit into a shorter, easy-to-use format.

Featuring Dr Cat!

Throughout the workbook you’ll find short, plain-language reflections and reminders from Dr Catherine Brasier, offering gentle guidance to help teams pause, reflect and stay grounded in Lived and Living Experience principles. These inserts act as helpful checkpoints — encouraging teams to consider voice, power, accessibility and impact at each stage of the work.

What the workbook covers

The workbook is structured around Wellways’ Six Steps of the Research Life Cycle and 17 Working it out together Research Actions, including:

connecting with communities and identifying questions that matter
embedding Lived and Living Experience leadership, power sharing and decision-making
designing accessible, inclusive and culturally responsive methods
planning for analysis, dissemination and impact in ways that honour Lived and Living Experience
using tools such as the Lived Experience Action Log and reporting guidelines to track and demonstrate impact

Who the workbook is for

The workbook supports:

research teams designing or reviewing projects
services and organisations commissioning or partnering on research
Lived and Living Experience collaborators seeking language and tools to influence project design
students and early-career researchers learning what high-quality Lived Experience-centred research practice looks like
policy, evaluation and design teams working with community expertise

The full toolkit and workbook

The toolkit and workbook for Lived Experience-centred mental health and wellbeing research practice is the comprehensive version of the resource.

It includes:

detailed step-by-step guidance
extended explanations and commentary
templates, exercises and reflective questions
evidence summaries and references
practical examples from the pilot and broader project learnings

It is designed for teams seeking deep guidance on building Lived and Living Experience into the foundations of their research, governance and decision-making structures.

The background report

The REPORT — A toolkit and workbook for Lived Experience-centred mental health and wellbeing research practice offers the context behind the project.

It provides a overview of:

the project’s origins and aims
the literature and scoping work that informed the toolkit
methodology and engagement approach
key insights from participants, partners and collaborators
implications for research teams, funders and the broader system

This report is particularly useful for people wanting to understand the foundations, evidence base and rationale behind the toolkit and workbook.

The pilot summary

The A brief pilot of the research toolkit and concise workbook summarises how the tools were trialled in real-world settings.

It includes:

what worked well in practice
where teams experienced challenges
suggestions for refinement
insights from participants across roles, disciplines and Lived and Living Experience backgrounds

The pilot provides a clear picture of how the resources operate in practice and how they can be best implemented.

Download the resources

This webpage hosts the full Working it out together resource suite.

You’re welcome to download, use and adapt these resources within your organisation. Please use the recommended citation provided in each document when referencing them.

How will this project help me?

Toggle audience types below to explore.

By promoting lived experience-centred approaches to research

Translational research questions

Why is it important for researchers and people with lived experience to find common ground?
How can researchers embed best-practice lived experience approaches in their research?
What information, tools and resources can help researchers pursue lived experience-centred approaches to research?

Project partners

Working it out together was delivered by Wellways Australia for the Victorian Collaborative Centre for Mental Health and Wellbeing, with academic collaboration from La Trobe University.

The project reflects the contributions of Lived and Living Experience leaders, researchers, students, practitioners and community partners across Victoria.