This 60-minute webinar introduces organizations in the Northeast Atlantic and Caribbean to the essential role of engaging people with lived experience as users of mental health services in mental health service implementation. Inclusion of people with lived experience is a driver of implementation success and long-term sustainability. This session focuses on strategies for meaningful engagement of people with lived experience in implementation teams. It introduces a new Lived Experience Engagement Toolkit and previews an upcoming learning collaborative to support organizations in using the toolkit.

Lived Experience Engagement Toolkit
The webinar will provide an overview of a new toolkit designed to move organizations toward authentic partnership with people with lived experience in implementation of mental health services. Toolkit features include:

• Defining Representation: Guidance on identifying lived experience in its many forms—including current and past service users, family members, and peer specialists.
• Self-Assessment & Goal Setting: Tools to help organizations measure their current engagement level and set realistic, measurable targets for growth.
• Actionable Strategies: Practical advice on building user-led implementation councils, ensuring meeting accessibility, and utilizing “lived experience surveyors” to measure project impact.
• Refinement & Marketing: Techniques for testing materials with user groups and using community marketing to improve outreach and trust.

From Theory to Practice: The Learning Collaborative
This session presents an opportunity to join a groundbreaking four-part Learning Collaborative. Designed for 8 to 12 committed organizational teams in mental health services, this collaborative empowers participants to harness the toolkit for impactful implementation projects. Ideal participants are those with an active implementation project and a desire to lead the region in inclusive, user-driven mental health care. Learning collaborative participants will embark on a structured journey that equips them to:

• Define engagement goals unique to their specific community needs.
• Develop a customized plan for incorporating lived experience engagement into organizational workflows.
• Address sustainability to ensure voices of people with lived experience remain central after the initial project phase.