I’ve been recently looking at opportunities to get involved in lived experience work, especially research. This started after I learnt that the Survivor Researcher Network were offering survivor research mentoring, as advertised in NSUN’s email bulletin (worth subscribing to if you have an interest in the world of mental health). The term ‘survivor’ in the names of both organisation refers to the concept of psychiatric survivorship. The mentors recommended looking into lived experience panels, which I googled and found Healthwatch Essex, who offer trauma and research ambassador positions (among others).
Something I’m particularly excited about is plans for the trauma ambassador group to look at a scheme for the trauma of autistic and learning disabled people who end up stuck in psychiatric wards due to challenging behaviour, but often without a treatable mental illness:
- https://www.autism.org.uk/what-we-do/news/autistic-people-in-mental-health-hospitals
- https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/nov/27/people-with-autism-are-being-locked-away-in-institutions-a-radical-change-is-needed
- https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-57722356
I need to put some real thought into what we could do that would meaningfully address this. I don’t want us to offer something to ameliorate the situation, which then gets viewed as having dealt with the situation – the only answer to these people’s ongoing trauma is discharge to a more suitable location. I’d like to either do some campaigning, or something for survivors of this situation, to help them with their traumatic stress.
PDA fae 