What Is an Expert by Experience?
An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of illness, disability, disorder, or addiction, and who has completed training to prepare for expert-by-experience roles. An expert by experience may be a person with a diagnosis, someone in recovery, a service user, or a family member.
Their experiences provide client-oriented knowledge about living with illness, the process of recovery, everyday life of a person in rehabilitation, the effectiveness of existing services, and the need for new services. Experts by experience work in cooperation with professionals, complementing their work rather than acting alone.
The involvement of experts by experience is based on the Finnish Ministry of Social Affairs and Health’s National Mental Health and Substance Abuse Plan 2009–2015 (Mieli 2009). The plan states that lived experience expertise should be utilized in:
- the planning, implementation, and evaluation of mental health and substance abuse services
- municipal strategy work
- rehabilitation working groups
- housing services
- efforts to reduce involuntary treatment and coercive measures
- various expert assessments
- training and awareness-raising activities to reduce prejudice and strengthen the position of clients
Source: Guide to Expert by Experience Activities, Outi Hietala & Päivi Rissanen, 2015
Other opportunities for involving experts by experience include:
- interviewing new clients or employees
- orientation processes
- presenting the unit
- care meetings
- peer support groups
