Our projects
We currently have three research projects looking at the history of the psychiatric survivor movement, the ethics of lived experience research, and organisational readiness for lived experience inclusion in research.
Lived and Living Experience research ethics
The Lived and Living Experience Group are co-producing guidance about ethics and research.
Our project team
Gina Giordani, Laura Ashton, Meg Vardy, Tehseen Noorani, Khan Buchwald-Mackintosh, Kay Hammond, Rose Li, Jason Kumar, and Tula Brannelly.
What we’re doing
We are co-producing guidance about ethics and research in mental health and addictions. The guidance aims to support research that meaningfully recognises and includes lived and living experience (LLE) and creates a positive and respectful experience for people involved in research. It will encourage researchers to think critically about power, relationships, representation and who benefits from research, and to embed strengths-based approaches to mental health and addictions research. The guidance is intended to support researchers, ethics committees and people with LLE to reflect on how research is developed and undertaken, and to ask critical questions about whether research is relevant, safe and accountable to the people and communities it concerns. It is informed by Te Ara Tika, with permission, alongside Alison Faulkner's work on survivor research ethics. This work was identified as a key activity at the 2025 annual LLERG planning day. A co-design group was established and met with Māui Hudson to discuss the adaptation of Te Ara Tika. The group then worked together to develop the guidance, and we are currently consulting with LLE academics and community members about what needs to be included and learning from people's experiences of doing and participating in LLE research.
We will update this page when the guidance has developed further. If you would like to be involved in the consultation, please email us on LLERG@aut.ac.nz
Psychiatric survivor movement
We are developing a position paper reflecting on the past to inform present-day lived experience-led mental health and addictions service design and delivery.
Our project team
Alex Walker, Debra Lampshire, Laura Ashton, Rose Li, and Jason Kumar
What we’re doing
We are developing a position paper reflecting on the past to inform present-day lived experience-led mental health and addictions service design and delivery. The paper will explore how the contemporary workforce can retain the activist and transformational values of the consumer, survivor and ex-patient movement that came before it. It will consider the opportunities created by the growing recognition of lived experience roles, as well as risks such as professionalisation, medicalisation, “peer drift” and the loss of lived experience perspectives within mainstream systems. The paper will look at what today’s lived experience workforce can learn from the history of the psychiatric survivor movement, including its focus on challenging injustice, clinical power and narrow understandings of mental health and knowledge. It will also acknowledge different views within the movement about whether change is best achieved by working within existing systems or by seeking more fundamental transformation. The paper will ask how the workforce can remain a strong and distinctive voice for change while working within mental health and addictions services. We will update this page as the position paper develops.
Organisational readiness for lived experience
How can we guide universities to develop their organisational readiness for the meaningful inclusion and leadership of people with lived and living experience?
We are developing a briefing paper and a set of principles on organisational readiness for lived and living experience (LLE) in research in Aotearoa. Our aim is to help universities to create research environments that support the meaningful inclusion of students, staff, and communities with LLE.
Our project team
Tracey Wallace-Hutchins, Alex Walker, Joanne Taylor, Kate Diesfeld, Rose Li, and Tula Brannelly.
What we’re doing
We are exploring what structural, cultural, and policy changes universities could enact to shift from spaces that can be unsafe or unwelcoming to ones where LLE is genuinely valued and supported. This includes looking at strategic planning, anti-discriminatory policy, shared decision-making, and how lived and living experience is recognised as a distinct form of expertise.
Mad Studies is our central framework for this work. We are also drawing on insights from critical disability studies to strengthen leadership and participation for lived experience researchers. We are learning from Māori leadership and advocacy that has advanced the recognition of mātauranga Māori within research, while recognising its distinct context and foundations. Honouring Te Tiriti o Waitangi is central to this work.
Why this work matters
Universities are increasingly aware of wellbeing challenges among staff and students, but responses are often underdeveloped. Māori and Pacific academics and learners face disproportionate impacts, and institutions have clear obligations to actively support them under Te Tiriti. At the same time, lived experience as a discipline is still establishing itself in research settings. There is a real opportunity to shape and navigate that pathway intentionally and well. We hope this project will provide practical navigation support for institutions and support them in understanding what meaningful change and pathways towards it may look like.
What’s in the works
We are consulting with lived experience academics about their experiences, connecting with other institutions in Aotearoa that have developed good practice, and building relationships with potential collaborators across Aotearoa. We hope to work towards establishing a community of practice for lived experience researchers in New Zealand universities.