Experts by Experience

Become an Expert By Experience

We work to champion the voice of people with lived experience to help shape the design, development, delivery and evaluation of our services.

This includes acting on national priorities such as the development of peer support and integration of the recovery approach, as well as creating opportunities for collaboration between staff, service users and their friends, family and carers.

We'd love you to get involved and there's a few different ways to do this:

Working together groups 

These are open forums where people with experience of using our services meet to share views and ideas to resolve issues and work with staff to make service improvements.

Expert by Experience (EBE) Programme 

These are workshops for people to gain skills to get involved in a range of participation activities. If you're interested in actively getting involved to help improve mental health services, this could be the workshop for you.

The workshops are an opportunity to recognise and build upon your skills and knowledge. They cover recruitment, getting involved in meetings and quality visits to services. You will also be invited you to sign up to our Expert by Experience mailing list EBE so we can let you know about upcoming opportunities.

Sessions are open to service users, past and present, as well as their family, friends and carers. The course explores how to communicate your personal experiences in a way that can create meaningful change to services and support you on your recovery journey. Watch this short video to find out more about our Expert by Experience programme:

For more information and to book your place, contact The People Participation Team:
•    Call: 0300 304 3444
•    Email participation@spft.nhs.uk

Please email the relevant Participation Lead in your area if you are interested in becoming an Expert By Experience, emails can be found below.

East Sussex: eastsussexparticipation@spft.nhs.uk

West Sussex: westsussexparticipation@spft.nhs.uk

CAMHS: CAMHSParticipationTeam@spft.nhs.uk

Neuro Developmental Services: NDSParticipation@spft.nhs.uk

Primary Care / Brighton & Hove: brightonhoveparticipation@spft.nhs.uk

SOAMHS (Specialist Older Adults Mental Health Services): soamhsparticipation@spft.nhs.uk

We will be supporting Perinatal services & Early Intervention Psychosis services to run their own Participation Workshops.

If you would like to attend either of these Expert By Experience Participation Workshops, please email Participation@spft.nhs.uk with your: Name, number and email address. Please also state if you have used Perinatal or Early Intervention Psychosis services and we can add you to the waiting list.

Our EbEs are at the heart of what we do; your voice is essential and important. The People Participation Team & The Participation Leads look forward to hearing from you.