Become A Member

History

QLEWN was started at a grassroots level by a group of passionate Lived Experience professionals who had experience working as, and with, other Lived Experience workers in State, National, and International contexts. It was strongly felt that the Lived Experience workforce lacked representation, had significant unmet needs and problematic issues in training and development. QLEWN was established to address workforce issues, including:image-20240719175243-1.jpg

  • insufficient Lived Experience leadership involvement is high level decision-making
  • lack of accessible, quality training for the workforce
  • limited access to appropriate supervision and support for Lived Experience workers
  • lack of clear benchmarks or standards for the workforce
  • lack of an active consumer advocacy peak body in Queensland

In 2017 the Queensland Mental Health Commission (QMHC) contracted Dr Louise Byrne to undertake research into barriers and enablers for the development of the Lived Experience workforce.  Dr Byrne’s final report outlined a range of key recommendations. Consequently, Brook Red and Brisbane North PHN initiated the Lived Experience Leaders' Roundtable to review and prioritise the recommendations, and to provide feedback to QMHC. Subsequently, the Queensland Framework for the Lived Experience Workforce was commissioned by QMHC and released in 2019.

In 2018, the Roundtable (supported by Brook RED and Brisbane North PHN) engaged members of the Lived Experience workforce in consultations (via an online Survey, the Building Foundations Forum and a Strategic Planning day) to explore workforce issues; determine the level of support for developing a peak body; and exploring workforce expectations for if such a peak body were to be created. In August 2019, Brook RED employed a project officer to progress the establishment of QLEWN. 

QLEWN operated without recurrent funding, as an unincorporated community group from 2017 to 2021. It was led by the volunteer members of the Roundtable, working in their own time. QLEWN became incorporated in February 2022 and operates under the direction of a formally elected Management Committee. The ongoing lack of recurrent funding continues to limit QLEWN's resources to address workforce issues.

Reports documenting the state-wide survey, Building Foundations Forum and the Strategic Planning Day can be found here: Our Work