Abstract
Mental health lived-experience research illuminates the perspectives and experiences of people who live with mental illness. However, little is known about how useful people with lived experience of mental illness/distress might find lived-experience research, nor what the best formats are to bring it to their attention. This paper describes the STELLER study (Supporting the Translation into Everyday Life of Lived-Experience Research), which explores the translation of lived-experience research in the lives of people living with mental illness. Our aim was to use a design thinking approach to develop a range of user-friendly formats to disseminate lived-experience research. A staged design thinking approach was used to develop a translation strategy for lived-experience research. We explored empathy via consumer consultation to understand their perspectives on lived-experience research, refined the design aim, research questions and generated ideas with consumers and mental health professionals, identified the evidence based on lived experience-authored journal articles, worked with design students and peer workers to create a suite of resources and developed prototypes tailored to individual settings and clients. Participatory design thinking strategies are essential to identify the best ways to translate evidence-based lived-experience research via accessible, lay-friendly resources targeted to individuals impacted by mental illness. This study is the first to investigate the feasibility and usefulness of bringing the findings of lived-experience research to individuals impacted by mental illness/distress. It provides evidence about a potentially important source of information that can be used to facilitate their recovery.
Highlights
Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.Lived-experience research in mental health is research that highlights the experiences of people who live with mental health issues and is conducted by researchers with their own lived experience or in research teams that include people with lived experience [1]
A staged design thinking approach [15] was used to develop resources based on the evidence base of lived experience on what helps in the day-to-day lives of people experiencing mental health challenges
The first phase—empathise—involved consultation with people with lived experience of mental health issues to understand their perspectives on lived-experience research
Summary
Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.Lived-experience research in mental health is research that highlights the experiences of people who live with mental health issues and is conducted by researchers with their own lived experience or in research teams that include people with lived experience [1].
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