Although still considered to be an emerging profession, lived experience (peer) work is now widely accepted as contributing meaningfully towards positive healing experiences for people experiencing mental health challenges.   For some individuals, receiving peer support is a valuable driver to seeing them seek and find treatment and support to heal from challenging experiences related to pregnancy, birth and early parenthood.

Provision of high quality peer support can create environments that foster trust, connection, and understanding. “Peer support in the perinatal period is described as an effective, positive, dependable support for women, helping them to overcome health care system barriers that contribute to mental health problems and improve ability to access mental health support” (Rice, et al. 2022).

Professionalisation of lived experience started as a consumer movement with the aim of safeguarding Human Rights and advocating for community based alternatives to institutionalised mental health care. Decades of this movement has resulted in the lived experience profession being the fastest growing workforce in Australia (Roennfeldt & Byrne, 2021). In the current environment of significant workforce shortages, embedding lived experience co-production principles and expertise within perinatal services ensures mothers and infants receive support across the continuum of care, from early intervention to crisis response support.

Quality assurance and practice frameworks are critical to the success of such initiatives. Lived experience professionals require appropriate training, skill development and reflective practice. Additionally, organisations have a responsibility to uphold governance processes and protocols to provide assurance that their workers are “integrated equitably and supported adequately” (Olding, et al. 2022).

This presentation will discuss the value of utilising lived experience workers, and how mothers and infants can benefit from peer support.  It will explore the professionalisation of lived experience as a discipline, and further highlight ways in which organisations can embed and appropriately support lived experience workers.