Unleashing Lived Experience Forum 17-18 November 2026
The recent announcement of the Forum raised a few questions. These FAQs provide more background. If you have other questions that are not addressed below, please email us at info@being.org.au so we can try to address them.
How did the Forum come about?
The Forum was proposed to BEING by Aventedge, a leading event company that delivers national events across areas including mental health, housing, First Nations issues, youth wellbeing and workplace wellbeing.
Australia is experiencing significant reform in a rapidly changing social, economic and political environment. As the NSW state peak for people with lived and living experience of mental health challenges, BEING saw an important opportunity when this was proposed to elevate issues members have raised with us. Underlying these commonly raised issues was the desire to actively influence systems that impact on mental health such as disability support, social services, aged care, housing, employment and more.
Drawing on these consistently raised and recurring themes, BEING developed a forum to reflect these themes with the aim to influence decision-making and policy around the social determinants of mental health that underlie mental health challenges.
Aventedge provides the event production and commercial infrastructure required to deliver an event of this scale. BEING brings relationships, reach and connection to lived and living experience to ensure decision-makers in government and government agencies hear, understand and embed lived experience.
The Forum is about taking serious issues that matter to people with lived and living experience directly to decision-makers, who can influence systems that impact on mental health.
Who is the Forum for?
There are already important and popular events where people with lived experience of mental health challenges can come together to connect, share and advocate. This incudes TheMHS Consumer Day Forum and Conference, the One Door Symposium, the Wellways Woodcock Lecture, and the Mind Stratford Lecture amongst others. BEING values and actively contributes to these spaces and encourages members to participate in them too.
The Unleashing Lived Experience Forum has a different purpose.
It is primarily aimed at bringing together consumers and senior decision-makers across government and the public and private sectors, who recognise the value of lived experience and want to understand how to meaningfully embed lived experience in policy, systems and services.
It is deliberately cross-sector as the systems affecting mental health extend well beyond the mental health system. In bringing together lived experience representatives from across mental health, housing, disability, First Nations issues, youth wellbeing and workplace wellbeing, the Forum can achieve something that has not been attempted before: to share how lived experience is built effectively into systems across different sectors, and then to share that best practice across all sectors.
This is an ambitious objective but one that needs to be tackled if significant improvements in mental health are to be achieved in the coming years. These sectors are all linked, and all need to be addressed in a cohesive way, with the voices of lived experience forming the foundation that drives change. It’s hard to know where to start when so many important social and economic matters impact mental health. This Forum is one step towards starting that process, from the perspective of our members, who have lived experience expertise that is vitally important decision makers hear.
The cost to attend is out of my reach
Aventedge’s ticket pricing is benchmarked in line with similar events that senior Australian business leaders attend. Ticket sales revenue enables the event to be run at this scale.
We recognise that cost can be a significant barrier. If you don’t have an employer or organisation able to fund your attendance, you can apply for one of the bursary scholarships available. Click here to find out more. Applications close on 25 September 2026.
In addition, and exclusively for BEING members, we will also provide a free Day 1 livestream for those interested. Details on how to register for this will be sent to members in due course. (Unfortunately, Day 2 cannot be livestreamed due to the practical challenges of streaming workshops that are occurring at the same time in different places.)
How was the agenda developed and speakers selected?
Lived and living experience is at the heart of the Forum. Around 90% of the advocates and speakers involved have lived and/or living experience of their own.
The agenda began with a central question: “How do we move from recognising the value of lived experience to meaningfully embedding it in decision-making?”
We looked across the systems that influence mental health and wellbeing, including housing, disability, ageing, employment, income and social services, and asked which organisations are fully lived experience-led and genuinely represent people across the diversity of lived experience. We sought those who hold real lived experience authority, so they could speak credibly to decisionmakers about what has worked, and what needs to change.
In developing the agenda, we drew on themes and experiences raised in previous consultative processes over many years including submissions, surveys, committees, advisory groups and the recent regional roadshow. These themes are well established issues that significantly impact members, and which members have raised multiple times in many forums. These key issues were synthesised into a cohesive framework, covering economic, social, and welfare policy issues.
There will be many more opportunities for members and NSW consumers to both participate in, have input into and shape the conversations and actions that follow the Forum. Without this participation and input, the primary objective of the Forum won’t be met, which is to elevate the voices of those with lived experience and bring that to the forefront of policy and service delivery. The Forum is just the beginning of a process, which we hope will gain momentum in the coming years. That is, to see mental health as a cross-sector issue, that is essential to have those with lived experience (our members) shape, guide and direct.
In what ways can I contribute to BEING’s advocacy work?
We encourage anyone who wants to have their voices heard and input used in our advocacy work, to consider one of these existing opportunities:
- apply to join on of BEING’s Monthly Advisory Committees (when vacant positions are advertised)
- join conversations in our members’ only, online community BEING Connected
- join our Consumer Register with a view to contributing to external consultations, projects and other activities
- upskill your advocacy skills through training on the BEING E-learning Hub
- share your views, experiences, priorities, and ideas in one of our surveys (current surveys to which you are warmly invited to contribute include):
- provide ideas and stories to be considered for inclusion in our weekly newsletter, the Mad Monday Memo (sign up here.)
- attend our Annual General Meeting.
What are the next steps?
In the coming months we will be inviting members to contribute to the next phase of our Theory of Change. This framework guides what we do, to ensure we deliver the impact and change our members want.
The next phase of our Theory of Change strategic work will be about choosing and designing the ways BEING members can provide more input, in addition to the ways members can already get involved at BEING.
If you want to have your say now, we have a survey seeking your input on BEING’s Theory of Change. However, there will also be more opportunities for feedback in the future.
This work will help us consider what meaningful membership engagement should look like for BEING, as our membership continues to grow. As we evolve as an organisation, we are evolving to meet a larger member base, and changing member expectations and needs, as well as developing new ways to engage and new methods to gather input .
I’m from another state or territory. How can I contribute?
BEING is the NSW state peak, BUT every state and territory has its own lived-experience-led organisations. We encourage you to connect with your local consumer peak to find opportunities to participate in advocacy in your state or territory.
- Northern Territory: NT Lived Experience Network
- Queensland: Mental Health Lived Experience Peak Queensland
- South Australia: Lived Experience Leadership and Advocacy Network
- Tasmania: Mental Health Lived Experience Tasmania
- Western Australia: Consumers of Mental Health WA
While these bodies all represent consumers in different states and territories, we all collaborate and work together on a national level through the National Mental Health Consumer Alliance which has additional opportunities for consumer advocacy and involvement.
I still have questions, who can I talk to?
We hope that this FAQ has addressed some of the questions you may have had. We always welcome questions, feedback, and different perspectives. If you would like to understand more about the Forum, share feedback or talk about BEING’s work generally, please contact us at info@being.org.au.