Transcript: Laying the foundations of the Lived Experience Network

Shelly, Lived Experience Network
And I think something that was done quite well is before we started doing big consultations. We had a chance to get to know each other. So we started out as not really knowing who each other, who each other were, and we had a chance to get to know each other before delving into all of the nitty gritty of what our experiences were like.

Jasmine, Lived Experience Network
Because I know for me personally that having someone who was approachable, who took the time to answer calls and answer additional questions and support the whole group has been a really important part of why the group has been successful and why all of us feel so comfortable.

Mirja, Lived Experience Network
I think having someone like that, you know that you can go to for all the go between stuff, but also being a part of the group just as much as all the all the other people in it has helped as well.

Shelly, Lived Experience Network
I think when we started out with creating and cementing the lived experience network as what it is today and looking at what our roles are, we came up with our core values and things that were important to us to remember and respect within the group, and everyone had an input as to what was important to them for being able to participate wholeheartedly in a group like this.

There was a lot of training, the additional training that needed to be done and to be able to give us confidence, to speak up, to give us the ability to be able to cope with the emotional toll that it takes. I think if you have that level of groundwork, if you have your core values and agree upon them and come up with them together, it's not something that's just thrust upon you and have that level of understanding.

You start creating a relationship within a group where people are able to find their voice and being able to acknowledge that there are some people who will not speak up unless they are invited to speak, because that may be a cultural respect thing that you haven't actually picked up on.

Jasmine, Lived Experience Network
I think it's that opportunity to build a relationship before you have to sit in a room and then pick apart all these different topics. I think that opportunity to build relationship has helped us understand, you know, Shelly hasn't spoken for a while. Hey, will give Shelly an opportunity because I can see on her face she has something to say.

So we've learned to kind of know each other's body language a little bit, too. We can also pick up when it's a bit too much and say like, Hey, do you want to leave the room? Do I'm going to come with you? I think that has been really helpful in the beginning part that we had a couple of lunches and just had an opportunity to chat so that we could get to know each other.

Like, what is your lived experience that you're bringing? So I think sharing your lived experience and what you're bringing to the group helped us work out, I guess, role in the group as well.

Mirja, Lived Experience Network
Yeah, I think those relationships built slowly over time. When we were doing the reforms and people's stories came out and, you know, that's how we got to know each other and histories and yeah, lived experiences.

Dana, Lived Experience Network Consultant
So I think it's really important that whatever you're doing, that you have people involved in it that really believe in families, believe in people can build really trusting relationships with people where you are seen as someone that they can trust and that you have their respect. 

You do need that because it takes a long time to build relationships with people. When they genuinely go, actually that this this could be real. actually I maybe I might be able to really do something different here.

Yasmin, Lived Experience Network Consultant
I think we needed to allow time for that to happen again, and particularly building a relationship with me. And I think also because we weren't sure exactly what the lived experience network was going to be, it was about, you know, co-designing something together with that group of parents and carers and with DHS as well.

Mel, Lived Experience Network Consultant
And my sense was that at every point the families we needed to really not just build trust with us, but build trust that the system would actually listen to them. I remember just feeling rightly so, that they were calling us to account at every turn to go, well will this really change? Well, what if we don't like that? What's going to happen is where are the decisions being and just watching that building of their belief.

Jasmine, Lived Experience Network
They were really willing to listen to us. And we were really open and honest and we just said it how it was. And I think that's sometimes what needs to happen.

Mirja, Lived Experience Network
I think also the fact that they came in knowing that there needed to be change. And so we're really willing and open to listening to what we had to say and, you know, wanted our input.

Jasmine, Lived Experience Network
And then were open about having hard conversations and let the hard conversations happen.

Shelly, Lived Experience Network
I think that that's where the difference with with co-design actually is they actually came into it and were genuinely willing to do this together, to work together to create a piece of of information that was going to be the future of all of the changes that needed to happen.