The Moving From Engagement to Partnership Project arose from The Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System Report call for a more powerful role for people with lived experience in the reformed mental health system, including that ‘people with lived experience will have an enduring and influential role in government decision making, with an equal seat at the table, working in partnership with others to lead change’.
The Commission’s recommendations require a shift from engagement to partnership. Through a review of the literature and a series of community conversations, this project explored the meaning of partnership with people with lived and living experience of Victoria’s mental health and alcohol and other drugs sectors, with the aim to develop a lived experience definition of partnership and recommend practical ways partnership can be realised with the Department of Health, Victoria (DH) and in the community and associated services and organisations.
The project findings are presented as a definition of partnership and a framework for achieving partnership with people with lived and living experience of Victoria’s mental health and alcohol and other drugs sectors.