Who we are

Lived Experience - driving change and improvement

Do you have lived experience of accessing Trust services, or supporting people who have, within the last 5 years?

Are you passionate about improving mental health services so that they better meet the needs of people, now and in the future?

Join our Lived Experience Network

The Lived Experience Network is a group of more than 270 people who have lived experience of accessing Trust services and supporting people who have, within the last 5 years.

Our Lived Experience Members have many reasons for joining the network, including a passion to use their experience and perspective to improve services for others; the opportunity to challenge stigma and raise awareness of diverse perspectives, and the opportunity to work alongside staff and other people with lived experience.

People interested in joining the Lived Experience Network can meet with the Involvement Team to find out more about how involvement works. We aim to support people to become involved in opportunities that align with their lived experience and interests. You can choose what you get involved in.

Examples of Coproduction and Involvement opportunities include, inviting people with lived experience to work alongside staff on:

 

 

Quotes from Lived Experience Members

To find out more, please contact involvement@swlstg.nhs.uk

Who are the Involvement Team and what do we do?

We are a team of people with lived experience of mental and emotional distress; accessing mental health services and supporting people who have. Our lived experience means that we have an appreciation of the perspectives of people who access services, and this helps us to support people in their involvement. It also can help to bridge the gap that can exist between people who access services and people who provide services.

We oversee four priority areas of lived experience involvement across the Trust that support the creation of opportunities for people with lived experience to share their perspectives to shape how services are developed and improved.

We support the Trust to implement the Involvement Plan which aims to:

• Change the culture of the Trust so that coproduction and involvement are a first thought. Where it isn’t taking place, the Trust asks why not?
• Increase service user and carer control so that people can see the impact of their involvement in improving services.
• Providing personal opportunities to people who are involved that are meaningful and rewarding and that value and make use their lived experience; skills and expertise.
• Extend our reach so that we involve and hear the voices of a more diverse group of people who use Trust services, and their carers.
• Have Coproduction at the heart of everything we do, in terms of the way that services are designed, commissioned and delivered.

What are Co-production and Involvement?

Involvement and Coproduction are about people with lived experience of services, and staff, working together to improve the mental health support we offer. They are about creating opportunities that ensure that the organisation listens to people who have first-hand experience of accessing our services; of what they need, what works well, what doesn’t.

Through seeking, reflecting on and being responsive to the perspectives, experiences and needs of people, the Trust will be more able to improve, develop and deliver safe, high quality patient care.

“Co-production means delivering public services in an equal and reciprocal relationship between professionals, people using services, their families and their neighbours. Where activities are co-produced in this way both services and neighbourhoods become far more effective agents of change” Boyle and Harris 2009

Coproduction is an approach to working together in equal partnership, towards shared goals. It has six guiding principles:

 

Our Model for Coproduction & Involvement

Our multifaceted model offers enhanced training and support to our Lived Experience Members, and new and improved ways of working collaboratively that aim to support the Trust to develop meaningful and impactful opportunities for involvement and coproduction.

The model has been coproduced with our Patient Quality Forum members and staff and has four key elements.

The implementation of the new model is an ongoing co-productive process through which we are codesigning ways of working. Rather than having a fixed idea about how to implement the model, we will do what is most impactful and achievable, maximising the commitment and enthusiasm of staff, Lived Experience Members and other stakeholders.

The aim of the model is to develop a trust wide structure that supports a proactive, planned and consistent approach to the development of impactful involvement and coproduction.

Alongside the development of our new Trust Wide Lived Experience forum, we have two main forums.

Patient Quality Forum

The Patient Quality Forum (PQF) was launched in December 2015 to provide us with a cross-section of views about quality and the experience of our services from the people who use them. Members of the PQF live in the five boroughs we cover and meet bi-monthly to consider quality and patient experience.

Carers Friends and Families Reference group (CFFRG)

This long-standing group meets bi-monthly to consider quality and patient and carer experience. Individual members of the CFFRG live in the five boroughs we cover and has representation from organisations that support carers within the Boroughs including the five Carers Centres.

To find out more, please contact involvement@swlstg.nhs.uk