Harnessing the power of lived experience to tackle mental health stigma and discrimination in healthcare

Moray Wellbeing Hub’s social movement, a collective action led by peers in Moray locality, emerged from a need for change at a local level. As people with direct experience of mental health challenges we wanted a collective way to prevent others experiencing the pain and distress that stigma and discrimination had thrust on us and, at the same time, support our own mental healthcare by acting for ourselves to improve the services we received, and realising our human rights to health and decision making.

Lived and living experience leading change in this way is powerful, especially through social contact approaches where people meet others on a more mutual level; hear their experiences, and enable human connection. This has a strong evidence base and increasingly government policy makes clear the needs for peers and peer approaches to be at the centre of service design and delivery.

Like fellow social movement members, also known as Moray Champions, my personal experiences with stigma and discrimination, along with those of my family, friends and peers, fuel my efforts to drive for change in healthcare. Some may call us activists at Moray Wellbeing Hub, but anyone can make a difference without needing a special job title, and this guide aims to help you do just that.

Our aim is that this resource guides you in sharing your experiences as a lever to change how healthcare is delivered for you and others, while supporting your wellbeing. Learning for this resource comes from what we, our local Champions, have learned through lived examples, as well as from other peers from across Scotland. Examples include the Champion who was able to change how medication was made accessible after a negative birthing experience in hospital for all future mothers in labour; or the success of another Champion to bring regular peer-support into the mental health ward, and their ability to help deliver this, which in turn, is keeping them well and reducing a need for them to return for in-patient treatment.

Moray Champions consider ourselves part of a social movement for change, working alongside See Me, hosts of See Us the national movement, to create local and national change with other advocates across Scotland. You are welcomed to join us in tackling mental health stigma and discrimination—you're not alone, and many are supporting you (even if you don’t know who they are – they, ‘we’, are there).

We aim to continually improve this guidance and appreciate your feedback on its content and what else might be helpful to add. More importantly, we want to share and celebrate your actions and successes—See Me is eager to promote these nationally to inspire others. This resource is just one of a suite of tools See Me host that can help you to transform services and supports for mental health by taking action to end mental health stigma and discrimination.

Remember – YOU have the power as someone with lived or living experiences to harness these and use them to help change things for yourself and others. Impacting a system as large as healthcare is complex and it may seem daunting as an individual, but it is possible one small change at a time, when each of us speak up and demand change for a better service for us all.

Very best wishes,

Heidi Tweedie
Social Movement & Enterprise Lead
Moray Wellbeing Hub