People who have experience of using local services to support their mental health are invited to join a new group that will help shape mental health services in Portsmouth.
The Lived Experience Network, set up by HIVE Portsmouth, offers people an opportunity to use their own experiences to help improve and influence changes to local services.
The network includes people with their own mental health lived experience, carers, those from the Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector and anyone else with an interest in shaping community mental health services.
Caroline Haworth, Mental Health Lead at HIVE Portsmouth, said:
“It’s important that the people of Portsmouth can access excellent mental health support at the time when they need it. This network provides an opportunity for people to have a voice and to share their experiences, bringing ideas together to help improve mental health services.
“Those who commission services want to hear from those who use the services, and that’s where we come in.
“Mental health services provide vital support to communities. The quality of these services and the ability to access them is crucial to the health and happiness of the people of Portsmouth. Through this network, we want to put service users and those with lived experience at the very heart of how services are designed and run.”
The Lived Experience Network plays a crucial part in Portsmouth’s Improving Mental Health project; delivered through Health and Care Portsmouth to make mental health care simpler, smarter and more joined-up.
Anyone with lived experience can join the network and in particular, HIVE Portsmouth want to hear from young people aged between 16 and 25 who have accessed, or attempted to access, mental health services in Portsmouth.
To make your own voice heard, visit our Lived Experience Network webpage.
For more information, visit our Improving Mental Health webpage.
HIVE Portsmouth is a partner of Health and Care Portsmouth, an ambitious programme of work that brings together health and social care partners in Portsmouth. Our vision is to support people to live healthy, safe and independent lives by developing and offering services that are joined up and provided in the right place, at the right time.