The needs of the SP LE workforce — background briefing part 2

Authored by Elliot Parkinson

Workforce needs identified through national policy and guidelines

National policy and guidelines commonly identify the need to enable people with lived experience to join the Lived Experience workforce, develop their capability, and build supportive conditions within organisations and systems.

At a national level, there are common elements to what is required to effectively develop and support the Lived Experience workforce identified in policy documents and evidence-based guidance[1][2][3]. These can be summarised generally as:

• encouraging greater participation of the Lived Experience workforce across different roles and settings and embedding Lived Experience workforce roles

• enhancing pathways to promote development and lived experience leadership

• creating structures for ongoing supervision and mentoring

• establishing Lived Experience workforce ‘educator’ roles

• providing equitable access to training opportunities — including different entry points across a diverse range of capabilities

• improving connections with Lived Experience networks, communities of practice, participating in relevant conferences/events and other opportunities for reflection and learning

• ensuring consistency and quality in the education and training available

• ensuring involvement of people with lived experience of suicide in the design and delivery of workforce development activities

• creating professional leadership and advocacy through formal and informal organising mechanisms (e.g. peak bodies, networks)

• ensuring organisational readiness for a Lived Experience workforce and fostering allyship with the Lived Experience workforce

• promoting a culture that supports safe sharing of lived experience by people in non-designated roles

• recognising that identification with the concept of ‘lived experience of suicide’ may not be culturally appropriate for First Nations workers and those working in Aboriginal-Identified roles.

Local needs in Central and Eastern Sydney

Developing and supporting the suicide prevention Lived Experience workforce in Central and Eastern Sydney requires equitable access to development opportunities, improving recognition amongst other professional roles, and a coordinated regional approach to workforce development.  

The report from the initial TRISP consultation process facilitated by CESPHN in 2023 that led to SPLEWDI outlined several priorities that were specifically relevant to the workforce in the Central and Eastern Sydney region but overlapped with the list above, including:

• forming a better understanding of what the development and support needs and preferences of the region’s suicide prevention Lived Experience workforce are — including identifying existing activities that could be expanded/enhanced and gaps in what should be available equitably to the workforce

• coordinating availability of a program of ‘training’ activities to build workforce capability, that would be tailored for the diversity of roles (e.g. entry-level, senior, Aboriginal-identified roles) and settings that Lived Experience workers in suicide prevention may work within

• making training, networking and professional support activities available to all lived experience (peer) workers in the region

• funding a program of professional peer supervision of the workforce

• recruiting or resourcing ‘Peer Educator’ roles to provide training, facilitate practice meetings and workshops, and engage with clinicians and other professionals to build their understanding of peer work

• developing a ‘scope of practice’ that outlines and communicates the role, value and capabilities of peer work across the region and requirements.

Achieving these priorities and undertaking this work effectively was seen as requiring a several things relating to how these activities would be implemented:

• a partnered approach that involves key people and links with other activities and relationships that already exist within the region

• identifying and connecting with all those who are working in the region’s suicide prevention Lived Experience workforce

• an implementation plan and joint governance mechanism that can collaboratively guide, coordinate, oversee and learn from the ‘strategy’

• allocating funding that can be used to fill those gaps in the activities that are currently available for the region’s Lived Experience workforce.

About this backbround briefing

The SPLEWDI project involves using the best available evidence and local knowledge to create an action plan that brings together people working in the SP LE workforce across the region — it aims to build on ‘what works’ while aiming to address current gaps in workforce development and support activities that are available.

This background briefing aims to provide a basic overview of the context and drivers to share with those who are involved in the planning or activities of the SPLEWDI. It summarises the findings of a quick scan and analysis of relevant documents and themes emerging from initial conversations with stakeholders to inform our collaborative approach.

Part one of the briefing explored the strategic drivers and opportunities for the development of the suicide prevention lived experience workforce nationally, in NSW and regionally.

Part two (above) explored the needs of the suicide prevention lived experience workforce based on previous consultation findings within the region and evidence/learnings from other work.

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1. Department of Health and Aged Care (2022). National Mental Health Workforce Strategy 2022-23

2. Byrne L, Wang L, Roennfeldt H, et al (2021) National Lived Experience Workforce Guidelines: Growing a Thriving Lived Experience Workforce. National Mental Health Commission

3. Leading the Change Consumer Worker Action Group (2020). Leading the Change: Co-producing safe, inclusive workplaces for consumer mental health workers - final report. University of Melbourne and VMIAC.