Lived experience participation means involving people with mental health conditions across our work. By sharing your experiences, you can help shape our services across Hampshire.
To meet our service users' needs, we must work with them to make sure their opinions and ideas are valued.
We want to hear from as wide a diversity of service users as possible, ideally hearing voices from across all of our services and local communities. If you're a friend, family member, or a carer of someone who accesses Solent Mind services, we want to hear from you as well.
This new role supports the suicide prevention board. To apply you must live within the city of Southampton.
Person with Lived Experience Suicide prevention board member (Southampton)
Participation role details:
This is a new role that will develop over three years, and the Partnership will be learning alongside the Person with Lived Experience (PLE). It requires strategic skills to effectively work with Partners from across the city.
More information available here.
As a Suicide Prevention Partnership Member, you will use your lived experience of any mental health challenges, including the impact of suicide or self-harm, to help shape decision-making within the Southampton Suicide Prevention Partnership.
The role involves attending quarterly Partnership meetings. Most meetings are held online via Microsoft Teams, though some may be face-to-face. Partnership meetings generally involve 15–20 attendees and are usually chaired by a Public Health consultant. To join online meetings, you will need access to a laptop and a stable internet connection. Everyone recruited for this role will receive support from a Solent Mind lived-experience lead.
Application deadline: Monday 28th August at 5pm
For more information, please see this role description.
For an informal conversation or an application form please contact [email protected]
There are a number of ways that you can get involved in our lived experience participation work.
Opportunities include:
We want your voice to be heard across our work, which is why we hold regular meetings every 4 to 6 weeks, both online and in person. These are informal sessions, where we talk openly and honestly about different services and topics related to mental health, looking to celebrate successes and create change where it is needed.
The topics of conversation are chosen by our service users, ourselves and our NHS and local authority service delivery partners.
You can join meetings in person by coming to our offices at 15/16 The Avenue, Southampton, or online via Zoom.
To express an interest in lived experience participation, please complete a form here: Solent Mind - Volunteering expression of interest
"It’s validating to have my voice heard, create some positive change, meet people who have had similar experiences and give back to the organisation that supported my recovery."
- Solent Mind service user
Yes - you can choose to be paid for lived experience participation. More information about financial reward can be found in our Lived Experience Influence and Participation Policy.
No - volunteers give their skills and time for free whereas we offer an optional payment for time and travel expenses for lived experience participation, to encourage as wide a variety of people to get involved as possible.
To find out more about our volunteer opportunities, please visit solentmind.org.uk/work-with-us/volunteer/
Got questions? Contact us
"Sitting on interview panels showed me that I can have an opinion which is valid, respected and appreciated and rebuilt my sense of being involved in teamwork.
Speaking at staff conferences has returned my confidence with public speaking.
I have become a voice for mental health lived experience, an ally of people with physical disabilities and an advocate for voluntary work."
- Simon
