Recommendation 29

What the Royal Commission said

The Royal Commission recommended the Victorian Government build on the Interim Report's Recommendation 5 and establish a new non-government agency led by people with lived experience of mental illness or psychological distress.

The agency will be overseen by a skills-based board chaired by and consisting of a majority of people with lived experience to:

• deliver accredited training and resources to aid the development of organisations led by people with lived experience of mental illness or psychological distress;
• develop and deliver mental health and wellbeing services led by people with lived experience of mental illness or psychological distress; and
• facilitate co-location, shared resourcing, learning opportunities and the creation of new partnerships and networks between people with lived experience of mental illness or psychological distress and the organisations they lead.

What we've achieved

• Early development work for the new agency is underway, led by a partnership between the Victorian Mental Illness Awareness Council, the Self-Help Addiction Resource Centre, and the Department of Health. Purpose and core functions of the new agency have been defined to ensure it will be grounded in lived experience and well placed to support future mental health reforms.

What we're doing

• We are continuing to explore ways to deliver the proposed role and functions of the Lived Experience Agency, to ensure it can effectively support people with lived and living experience and contribute to mental health reform.