MHCC's Lived Experience Engagement Checklist

We use the term ‘lived experiences’ to refer to the lived and living experience of trauma, neurodiversity, mental health challenges, psychological distress, suicide, substance use or addiction of consumers, their families and carers.

The MHCC recognises family to include family of choice, friends and significant others. We also recognise that in some cultures family or whanau are inclusive of all peoples connected to the consumer.

Read more about the MHCC’s Driven by Lived Experience Framework and the Department of Health’s Lived Experience Framework.

Involving people with lived experience in projects and other work helps organisations build understanding, improve quality and enhance the knowledge required to plan and deliver projects and policy work.

Co-design and co-production with people with lived experience helps frame the work according to priorities identified by them, helping in making the work more relevant and deliver real world outcomes.

Before you start a project, the checklist can help you consider how, and in what ways you may engage with people with lived experience. This ensures that they have the greatest possible opportunity to influence and drive the work. You can also use the checklist to track how you’re progressing throughout the various aspects of the project.

The checklist can be used by staff, both with and without personal lived experiences. It can be used by public mental health services and other organisations in the mental health sector. The checklist is not exhaustive and is not a substitute for engagement with people with lived experience.

The checklist is framed by the MHCC’s lived experiences values. It gives examples of how all project and policy work can be informed by people with lived experiences. The checklist can be downloaded and printed or used online in an interactive format.

Tick the box that applies best to you. If the answers you select contain a greater number of ‘no’; and ‘partially’ results, then we recommend using the the MHCC's Lived Experience Engagement Checklist - Further Resources as a guide to help you explore opportunities where a ‘yes’ can then be selected.

Some different ways to engage people with lived experiences include one or many of the below approaches (see Figure 1). The Lived Experience Engagement Framework (Department of Health and Human Services, 2019) includes a decision-engagement tool that shows what is required to achieve each level of engagement. The statements within the tool can be used by staff to increase the potential of more meaningful engagement during the different stages of the project.

Figure 1: Decision engagement tool (adapted from the Department of Health and Human Services, 2019)

It is important to consider the power differentials likely to be experienced by people with lived experience during the engagement process. A useful starting point is to think about whether there are adequate lived experience voices whose views and opinions are being heard, recognised, validated and implemented. Below are some points worth considering:

Ensure that people with lived experience make up a majority of views sought /engagement membership, including in governance groups. When this occurs within the organisational structure, it fosters an environment that takes lived experience perspective seriously, reduces stigma and empowers people with lived experience to engage more effectively.

The perspectives of people with lived experiences are built into decision-making and leadership structures (e.g. people with lived experiences as part of the executive, as chairs or co-chairs)

Find out more about this topic here where you can hear Indigo Daya talk about power differentials within the mental health setting.