Key messages
- People with lived and living experience (LLE) are people who have first-hand experience of mental health, alcohol and other drugs (AOD), harm reduction, gambling harm, and suicide prevention services, programs and systems operating within Victoria. This includes families, carers and supporters of people with these experiences.
- The Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System and the Alcohol and Other Drug Strategy 2025–35 both recognise the inherent value of LLE expertise.
- The Royal Commission called for people with this expertise to lead, design and deliver priorities under the mental health, AOD and other system reforms that are underway.
- The Lived and Living Experience Framework 2026–36 sets a 10-year framework for LLE leadership and workforces.
- The framework envisions a Victoria that centres LLE leadership, partnerships, and workforces when delivering services.
The Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System called for lived and living experience (LLE) to be central to the planning, design and development of our mental health and wellbeing system.
People with lived and living experience may have experience with mental health, alcohol and other drug (AOD), harm reduction, suicide prevention and gambling harm services and programs. These experiences can profoundly impact a person's life and worldview. A person with lived and living experience also includes people who are family members, carers or supporters of people who have or have had these experiences.
Nobody knows the mental health and wellbeing system better than the people who have experienced it firsthand. Victoria has a growing number of LLE workers and leaders in the mental health, AOD, and harm reduction sectors, including gambling harm and suicide prevention.
The Victorian Alcohol and Other Drugs Strategy 2025–35 (the AOD strategy) affirms that lived and living experience is fundamental to achieving a modern, person-centred alcohol and other drugs system.
The knowledge, leadership and expertise of people with lived and living experience are critical to reducing harm, improving service quality and shaping reforms that meet the needs of individuals, families and communities across Victoria. The AOD Strategy recognises and values the growing contribution of the lived and living experience workforce across treatment, harm reduction, peer support and system leadership.
What is lived and living experience (LLE) leadership?
Lived and living experience leaders translate lived experience knowledge and expertise into leadership that influences service, individual outcomes and system-wide change.
Embedding lived and living experience leadership means:
- creating formal leadership roles at the government and organisational level; and
- intentionally embedding LLE expertise in a way that advances lived experience perspectives and contributes to system and organisational reform.
Lived and Living Experience Leadership Framework 2026–36
The Lived and Living Experience Leadership Framework 2026–36 sets a shared vision for a service delivery system that centres lived and living experience in how it is led, shaped and delivered by people with LLE.
The framework is the first of its kind in Victoria, bringing together diverse LLE perspectives to develop a collective vision for system-wide LLE leadership.
It provides a 10-year framework for LLE leadership and workforces, which will support broader service outcomes for Victorian consumers, families, carers, and supporters.
The framework sets out:
- the vision for LLE leadership, workforces and partnership
- a strategic framework that establishes the direction and enabling conditions required for LLE leadership and partnership
- definitions, principles, values and models of LLE and LLE leadership
- an ideal future state for LLE leadership and workforces, and recommendations for enablers to support LLE leadership and partnership
- processes and structures to guide implementation, including a framework for monitoring and achieving progress towards our vision aligned with the Outcomes and Performance Framework.
Work to implement the framework will begin in Phase One. This will focus on establishing governance, mapping current investment, identifying gaps and engaging lived and living experience communities to shape future action.
Engagement with lived and living experience sector
The framework was developed with lived and living experience leaders, advisory group members, technical experts, peak bodies, system stewards, services and communities across mental health, AOD, harm reduction and related fields.
The framework is supported by three companion documents:
- Lived and Living Experience Leadership - Literature Review: a review of existing evidence and research on lived and living experience leadership, workforce and partnerships in mental health, AOD and harm reduction contexts.
- Lived and Living Experience Leadership - Analysis of Royal Commission findings: an analysis to bring together intentions for lived and living experience leadership and identify reform gaps.
- Lived and Living Experience Leadership - Foundations for transformation: a foundational document from which the background, rationale and evidence underpinning the areas for action has been drawn.
Read these companion documents at the Victorian Collaborative Centre for Mental Health and Wellbeing.
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