Influence and Participation

Ensuring that people with lived experience of mental health are involved and influence the ongoing development of Cornwall Mind is very important to us.

We work hard to understand the needs and experiences of people with mental health problems. This drives everything we do, and, wherever we can, we actively seek opportunities for people with lived experience of mental health.

Why do influence and participation matter?

People with lived experience play an important role in shaping and developing services, their experiences and ideas help us to develop tailored services that meet the needs and challenges people struggle with every day.

To meet people’s needs, we must work with them to make sure their opinions and ideas are valued. It is essential not to make assumptions or take choices and control away from people.

It is crucial to engage with a truly diverse range of people within organisations and services whose work affects people with lived experiences of mental health problems. Work will only be practical if we truly hear and understand the needs of people and then plan and deliver accordingly.

For Cornwall Mind, this means that people with lived experience of a mental health problem must be at the centre of everything we do.

Lived experience influence

We want to work in partnership with people who have experienced mental health difficulties to improve our services. With your experience and expertise, you can help us to improve our services for others who may need them.

We aim to give people with lived experience the opportunity to shape and develop our work; this includes what is prioritised and how it is planned, delivered and evaluated. In other words, people are influencing decision making. This could be through completing a survey, taking part in a focus group, contributing to decision-making on an advisory group or leading a project.

Lived experience participation

We also need people with lived experience to work alongside us in a practical way to achieve our aims. People might volunteer at an event sharing their experience of mental health problems, share their stories as part of a training session or support our online campaigns.

We recognise that people’s experiences can take many different forms therefore as we plan, develop, and implement our work, it is vitally important we actively develop and promote opportunities for people to use their experiences and skills to influence our work.

We must listen to, understand and act on the views and opinions of as wide a range of people with experience of mental health problems as we can.

 

 

Our Influence and Participation Team

Lived Experience Co-ordinators

The role has been developed as part of the opportunity presented by NHS Mental Health Transformation and is intended to influence and improve services beyond the scope of that funding.

There is a commitment from Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and NHS Kernow CCG to work closely with the Voluntary and Community or Third Sector to design, transform and deliver mental health services.

A Space To Speak Your Mind mental health radio show

Our award winning mental health radio show in collaboration with Source Fm, provides opportunity for people to get involved and have their say.

This platform gives people with lived experience the opportunity to work alongside us in a practical way to achieve our aims. Through the radio show we can listen to, understand, and act on the views and opinions of as wide a range of people with experience of mental health problems as we can.

Peer Support Network Co-ordinator

This role provides an independent, supportive and solution focused forum for the Peer Support Workers embedded within Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and other parts of the heath system.

It provides liaison between the Peer Supervision Group and host organisations, communicating challenges and solutions. We are also developing a report to support and inform the development of Peer Support within the Trust for the future and working to develop professional recognition to reflect the growth of Peer roles.

Volunteers

We aim to recruit a group of volunteers with lived experience, who can bring the specialist skills and expertise we need to help shape our services.

People might volunteer at an event sharing their experience of mental health problems, share their stories as part of a training session or support our online campaigns.

Funded by Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust