Lived experience research as a resource for recovery: a mixed methods study.

BACKGROUND: Lived experience research is conducted by people who have experience of mental health issues and is therefore better placed than more traditional research to illuminate participants' experiences. Findings that focus on identifying enablers of recovery from a lived experience perspective have the potential to assist people in their recovery process. However, this lived experience research is often difficult to find, access and interpret. We co-produced user-friendly and engaging resources to disseminate findings from six lived experience research studies. This paper seeks to answer the research questions: a) Did exposure to lived experience research increase hopefulness for participants?; and b) How else did interacting with lived experience research resources influence participants' lives? METHODS: Thirty-eight participants were introduced to four resources of their choosing by peer workers over a four-week period. The helpfulness of resources was evaluated using mixed methods, including a quasi-experimental analysis of change in hope, an anonymous survey and in-depth interviews. RESULTS: Findings indicated that the resources promoted hope, but that increases in hopefulness may not be seen immediately. Other impacts include that the resources: encouraged helpful activities; provided a positive experience; increased valued knowledge; encouraged people to reflect on their journey and think constructively about mental health issues; helped people to feel less alone; and assisted people to explain their situation to others. CONCLUSIONS: The research suggests the potential usefulness of lived experience research resources, presented in user-friendly formats, in the lives of people who experience mental health issues and implies a need to nurture this type of research.

Making Lived-Experience Research Accessible: A Design Thinking Approach to Co-Creating Knowledge Translation Resources Based on Evidence.

Mental health lived-experience research illuminates the perspectives and experiences of people who live with mental illness. However, little is known about how useful people with lived experience of mental illness/distress might find lived-experience research, nor what the best formats are to bring it to their attention. This paper describes the STELLER study (Supporting the Translation into Everyday Life of Lived-Experience Research), which explores the translation of lived-experience research in the lives of people living with mental illness. Our aim was to use a design thinking approach to develop a range of user-friendly formats to disseminate lived-experience research. A staged design thinking approach was used to develop a translation strategy for lived-experience research. We explored empathy via consumer consultation to understand their perspectives on lived-experience research, refined the design aim, research questions and generated ideas with consumers and mental health professionals, identified the evidence based on lived experience-authored journal articles, worked with design students and peer workers to create a suite of resources and developed prototypes tailored to individual settings and clients. Participatory design thinking strategies are essential to identify the best ways to translate evidence-based lived-experience research via accessible, lay-friendly resources targeted to individuals impacted by mental illness. This study is the first to investigate the feasibility and usefulness of bringing the findings of lived-experience research to individuals impacted by mental illness/distress. It provides evidence about a potentially important source of information that can be used to facilitate their recovery.