Lived Experience (Peer) Workforce Project
The Minister for Mental Health and the Mental Health Commission are pleased to release the Western Australian Lived Experience (Peer) Workforces Framework.
Embedding Lived Experience (Peer) Workforces is acknowledged in national and state policy, recent reviews, reports and Royal Commissions as a key enabler to having individuals, families and communities meaningfully involved in the design, delivery and evaluation of services and approaches which affect their lives.
Building the capacity of the Lived Experience (Peer) Workforces is part of the WA State Priorities Mental Health, Alcohol and Other Drugs 2020 – 2024 and aligns with the Western Australian Mental Health, Alcohol and Other Drug Services Plan 2015–2025.
Using co‑design principles, the Lived Experience (Peer) Workforces Framework (the Framework) has been developed with more than 200 stakeholders including people with a Lived Experience, Lived Experience leaders, peer workers and allies, clinicians, service providers, peak bodies and funding agencies.
As an example of this co-design process we held a series of Development Workshops. Click here for more information on the workshops.
The intent of the Framework is to provide a contemporary approach to developing the Lived Experience (Peer) workforces in Western Australia (WA). Together with supporting resources, the Framework is a practical guide for building, embedding and sustaining diverse Lived Experience (Peer) Workforces across the mental health, alcohol and other drugs and suicide prevention sectors. It aims to guide and maintain the development of these workforces as a discipline in their own right while responding to the specific needs of WA’s population and settings.
The Framework will be supported by guiding resources including a Toolkit for Organisational Actions, Aboriginal Lived Experience Workforce Guide and a Lived Experience (Peer) Worker Handbook, currently being developed. The Framework and guiding resources are intended to be practical and accessible for all stakeholders including:
- people who are in or heading into a Lived Experience (Peer) Work role
- organisations which are seeking to learn how to develop Lived Experience led strategies and actions to engage thriving
- funding bodies which seek to commission and fund organisations to build their Lived Experience (Peer) Workforces.
To support the implementation of the Framework and recommended actions, a number of Lived Experience (Peer) workforce initiatives are already underway including increased scholarships and delivery of the Certificate IV in Mental Health Peer Work and Peer Work skills set course, organisational readiness training, development and delivery of peer supervision training pilot course, funded peer work positions and the scoping of a Lived Experience (Peer) workforces association.
The Framework will assist in key implementation of the Mental Health Commission’s Mental Health, Alcohol and Other Drug Workforce Strategic Framework 2020-2025, Young People’s Mental Health and Alcohol and Other Drug Use: Priorities for Action2020-2025 and the Final Report - Ministerial Taskforce into Public Mental Health Services for Infants, Children and Adolescents aged 0 – 18 years in WA.
Last updated 26 March 2024
Resources and information
More information is available here.
Term of reference documents
Steering Committee communiques
- July 2021
- August 2021
- September 2021
- 27 October 2021
- 25 November 2021
- 17 December 2021
- 9 February 2022
- 24 February 2022
- 6 April 2022
- 5 May 2022
- 13 July 2022
- 18 August 2022
- 29 September 2022
- 12 December 2022
- 15 February 2023
- 18 April 2023
- 25 July 2023
- September 2023
- November 2023
- 11 December 2023
- 13 February 2024