What is Lived or Living Experience (LE)?
Lived Experience (LE) are the things that someone has experienced themselves or something someone has lived through, or is living through.
A person’s lived experience gives the person a special knowledge or understanding that people who have only heard about such experiences do not have.
At the NSRF we want to ensure our research is informed by Lived Experience (LE). This means that we want to carry out our research ‘with’ or ‘by’ members of the public with lived ,or living experience rather than ‘to’, ‘about’ or ‘for’ them.
For us, LE involves people with lived experience contributing to all aspects of our research and practice. We have created a panel of people with lived experience who are described as ‘LE Representatives’.
How did we recruit our LE Representatives?
We invited anyone with lived experience of suicide, self-harm or mental illness to apply to our panel through an online or print application form which was available on our website.
The role of our LE Representatives
Throughout the year, we reach out to our LE Representatives with invitations to contribute to our work.
There are multiple stages of the research cycle, from identifying a problem or a gap in research, to evaluating how well a treatment, service or intervention works. Overall, we want our LE Representatives to have the opportunity to contribute to each stage of the research cycle.
LE Representatives have 100% choice over which pieces of research they would like to contribute to.
Examples of tasks may include:
- Review documents and/or contribute to research proposals related to mental health and suicide.
- Help us develop research ideas and discuss how best to put these into practice.
- Join discussions about relevant mental health and suicide related updates and developments (example: local and national policies, best-practice guidelines, education standards etc.)
Our LE Representatives have already contributed to a number of projects at the NSRF including: the PERMANENS project, the MENTBEST project, the Youth Suicide Bereavement Project, reviewing HRB grant applications, contributing to the Organisational Strategy at the NSRF and other projects with partners such as the HSE and NOSP.
We also have a number of upcoming projects to which our LE panel Representatives will actively contribute their expertise.
About our LE Representatives
Our LE Representatives come from all backgrounds, with varying levels of lived experience of suicide, self-harm, and mental illnesses; e.g. those bereaved by suicide, those who have experienced suicidal behaviour in the present/past, those who have experienced mental illness in the present/past.
Our LE panel was established in January 2024, and we currently have 10 LE Representatives actively contributing to our work.
Remuneration and expenses
All LE Representatives are compensated for their time spent attending meetings and taking part in co-design work, at a rate of €25 per hour. This is paid in One4All vouchers.
For in person meetings LE Representatives also have their travel and expenses covered at a maximum rate of €120 euro per day, depending on where they are coming from.
For questions or further information
Contact: Aileen Callanan LE Co-ordinator for NSRF
Email: ppie@ucc.ie or aileen.callanan@ucc.ie
Postal Address: Aileen Callanan, LE Panel co-ordinator, NSRF, 4.28, Western Gateway Building, Western Rd, Mardyke, Cork