Support for lived experience speakers
Lived experience speakers and representatives can enhance community understanding of mental health concerns and their impacts.
These representatives can be strong advocates to include in mental health planning and can assist in reducing stigma and improve knowledge within the Australian public.
The lived experience community can provide valuable insights into mental illness initiatives, projects and programs.
The personal experience and understanding of their journey can support and guide prevention planning, treatment and education as well as contribute to improved care and enhanced safety.
This section is designed to support, empower and build the capacity of those within the lived experience community to safely communicate with the media and public about mental health concerns through:
- Appropriate, sector-consistent guidance on appropriate language use
- Insight around the potential impact of presentations and content discussing mental illness, based on research evidence
- Strategies to maximise opportunities to represent, discuss and raise awareness around suicide appropriately in the media
- Guidance and tactics on how to respond to positive and negative reporting of mental health and mental illness
- Access to relevant reference material including facts and statistics, research, resources, help-seeking information and services.