Psychiatry, Psychology and Law: Perspectives of People with Lived Experience

Screengrab of Tweet featuring photo of panel. Text reads Vrinda Edan ‏@Carinya1990 #PPL2019 panel on co produced research with consumers and peers

In early November, the 2019 joint conference of the Australia and New Zealand Association of Psychiatry, Psychology and Law (ANZAPPL) and the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists was held in Singapore. This year’s theme was Collaboration and Challenges Across the Global South.

In an ANZAPPL conference first, day two of the event included a plenary session featuring the perspectives of people with lived experience. Sponsored by the Melbourne Social Equity Institute, the session was titled Research Co-Produced with Consumers and Peers to Combat Stigma in Health Service Provision.

The session was moderated by Dr Piers Gooding and featured:

  • Nawira Baig, Silver Ribbon Singapore, the Community Mental Health Assessment Team (CHAT)
  • Janice Cambri, Founder of Psychosocial Disability-Inclusive Philippines; Steering Committee Member, Transforming Communities for Inclusion (or ‘TCI’) Asia Pacific
  • Ngai Chun Victor Leung, Peer Support Worker, the Richmond Fellowship of Hong Kong and the United Christian Hospital
  • Mary O’Hagan, Director of the international social enterprise PeerZone, Former New Zealand Mental Health Commissioner

This panel discussed the value of research produced with people who have used mental health services. Co-produced research in the mental health context places service users and others with experience of psychosocial disability at the centre of decision-making about the purpose, design, conduct and use of research. It moves beyond seeing members of communities as objects of research to enabling them to drive the research agendas that concern them.

A full summary of the session can be found on the ANZAPPL Blog.