Our Research
Lived Experience Australia is involved in research projects to broaden the evidence base and knowledge of the mental health sector in Australia. This research is also an integral part of how we advocate for better services. We use our learnings from these studies to guide us in what is needed and how we can make things better.
If you would like to participate in our research or be informed when we release new reports, you can join our mailing list to get our latest research information delivered straight to your in box.
Talking About Things Important to Me: Mental Health Consumers' Experiences of Consumer-Rated Measures
This research sought to understand the experiences of clinician-rated and consumer-rated outcome measures which are part of routine care within Australian clinical mental health services. Our aims were to seek the views and experiences of mental health consumers of using consumer-rated measures in their encounters with clinicians; to understand better whether there were benefits (and if so what) of consumer-rated measures being used in routine mental health practice; to understand how feedback on the use of consumer-rated measures can inform training for mental health staff; and to promote their wider use within mental health services.
Authors:
S. Lawn1,2 | D. Jiggins1,3 | R. Dickson3 | T. Coombs
Risk prevalence, readiness and confidence to change lifestyle risk factors among clients of community mental health services
People with mental health conditions have high rates of chronic physical diseases, partially attributable to
lifestyle risks factors. This study examined risk prevalence among community mental health service clients, their readiness and confidence to change, and associations with participant characteristics.
Authors:
Tegan Stettaford , Caitlin Fehily, Elizabeth Campbell, Daniel Barker, Christopher Oldmeadow, Emma McKeon, Sophie Love , Sharon Lawn, David Castle and Jennifer Bowman
Unequally Unwell: Shorter life expectancies, reduced life opportunities
The data presented in this report provides an insight into the experience of many living with mental illness, their families, carers and supporters as they interact with services that provide physical and mental health care. This report presents data that indicates a consistent pattern of reduced life expectancy for a large section of the population: those who used Australian Government-funded mental health services.
Authors:
Roberts, R, Wong, A, Lawrence, D, Lawn, S, and Johnson, C (2024).
Determining the future role of clinical practice guidelines: The experience of Australia and New Zealand
Contemporary guidance needs to be tailored to the requirements of the practitioners seeking it, to articulate the real-world needs and experiences of patients, and to be delivered in a contemporary format that is responsive to rapidly emerging evidence. The experience in Australia and New Zealand may have implications elsewhere for the development of CPGs and BPRs more broadly
Authors:
S Kisely , H Herrman, S Chamoli , D Hemachandra, S Lawn, L Bajurny, N Wright and G Mellsop
Families’ moral distress when supporting military Veteran and public safety personnel mental health: Conceptual model
The objective of this study was to describe families’ experiences of supporting Veterans/PSP seeking help for mental health concerns and formulate a conceptual model to illustrate the impacts of these experiences on families.
Authors:
Sharon Lawn, Louise Roberts, Elaine Waddell, Wavne Rikkers, Ben Wadham, Tiffany Beks, David Lawrence, Pilar Rioseco, Tiffany Sharp, Galina Daraganova and Miranda Van Hooff
Shortcomings of services for those with severe and persistent mental health challenges
The opinions of service users and carers are crucial to identifying ways to innovate and implement system change. This study explores the views and experiences of service users and carers on the services they have used for their mental health challenges and their suggestions for service reform.
Review of international peer-reviewed literature and environmental scan to identify innovative service delivery modles to support increased engagement of the peer workforce
This 2024 literature review, included a desktop review of existing peer workforce models in a range of contexts, analysis of evidence to support these models, and workforce issues relevant to the peer workforce models.
Evidence across these diverse settings and contexts are included in this review where peer support for mental health challenges are explicit components of the model being described and evaluated. In this report, we have aimed to capture this diversity with specific groupings of the evidence according to their settings and contexts
