Lived Experience Video Recruitment

Story sharing is one of the most powerful tools there is.  

Sharing your story means acknowledging your experience but refusing to be defined by it and recognising how your pain and challenges can become something positive. For those struggling with their mental health, hearing about other’s journeys can bring peace and comfort by validating their own emotional distress and providing much needed hope that recovery is possible, something we vehemently believe is true. 

BEING is always looking for consumers to share their stories and right now we are specifically looking to create information videos about the experience of living with mental health issues and the mental healthcare system.

If you’d be willing to share your story, please complete the form below.
We will consider applications as they arrive so the sooner you respond, the more likely we are to use your story.

At this time we are particularly looking for people with experience of the following and how it might have impacted your mental health: 

• Living in a rural or regional area
• Being a young adult (aged 18-25 yrs)
• Being a member of a culturally/linguistically diverse community (non-Anglo)
• Experience or have experienced housing difficulties or being homeless
• Have spent time in a public mental health unit
• Suicidality

If selected what would you need to do? 

Successful applicants will be invited to come into our Sydney office and be recorded on video responding to a series of questions. (We will pay you for your time and reasonable travel expenses.) 

How might your story be used? 

We will professionally produce a 3-4 minute video that will live on our website in our video resources section. In addition, we will cut one or two short clips (5-15 secs) for use in an awareness/membership campaign on social media. 

We would also like to publish a selection of the submissions in our newsletter, the Mad Monday Memo. You will be asked if you consent to this in the form.

To what extent will your privacy be protected? 

We treat the privacy of our members as the highest prioritiy so videos will only be identified with your first name or a pseudonym. However, being able to see the face of the person telling their story is an important part of creating a connection with the viewer so faces will be visible. Once the videos are on our website or used on social media, they will be open to public view. To ensure that as a participant you are clear on what this means, we have created a special consent and release form for this project that you will need to sign in order to participate.

What’s next? 

If you’d be willing to share your important experience, complete the form below and we’ll be in touch to confirm if we’d like to go ahead and record your lived experience story.

The form includes the questions that will be asked in the interview. If you are uncomfortable with any questions in the form, simply quit the form and your responses will be deleted.

If you have any questions, please email julian.clarkson@being.org.au.