Sustainable and embedded Lived and living experience workforce models in mental health: An international scoping review.

Abstract

Background/aim: Deakin rural health were approached by Grampians Health (following the recommendations from the Victoria Royal Commission 2021 into Mental Health) to explore what are the characterizes of a Lived and living experience workforce. The first part of this work was to complete a scoping review to explore the international literature. The aim was to identify characteristics of a sustainable embedded Lived and Experience Workforce (LLEW) in Mental Health. Population/setting: The inclusion criteria for this search was • Peer reviewed research. • Any study designs. • Study should be set in any mental healthcare service that has an embedded LLEW program. The study may be within the hospital or community healthcare setting including mental health clinics, emergency departments, hospital psychiatric ward, drug treatment centers, harm minimization programs. • LLEW must be a healthcare service employee. • LLEW position should be filled by persons with lived experience of mental health, or their family/carer. • LLEW should undertake healthcare service roles involving leadership, development, implementation, or delivery of LLEW support for people with mental illness. • Consumer (i.e. patient, carer), healthcare professional, LLEW, or stakeholder panel member perspective. • Published between 1990 – 2025 inclusive. • Study outcomes should discuss at least one of: o LLEW program design. o LLEW program governance. o Experiences, attitudes, expectations, needs Methods: Search strategy and protocol developed in accordance with PRISMA. A comprehensive search of Ovid MEDLINE, EMBASE, Scopus, and CINAHL complete (EBSCOhost) databases. The CFIR framework was used to guide process evaluation and the RE-AIM framework used to evaluate the outcomes. Results/findings: The preliminary findings have identified eight major themes which appear to be the major elements of sustainable LLEW. The importance of: boundaries, role definition, supervision, management commitment/organizational culture Training, wellbeing, recruitment and payment, disclosure. Conclusion: There are core characterizes which appear at this stage to be essential for the sustainability of a LLEW program in Mental health. Further work is required to evaluate these core characteristics. Particularly in specialist areas in mental health like child and adolescent teams were LLEW appear to experience slightly different challenges. Translational impact/implications for future practice: The implications for the future are large as the scoping review helps in inform the development of a sustainable lived and living experience workforce within mental health. The scoping review has highlighted the characteristics which are essential components of these models.