Testimonials
See what people love...
“The lived experience peers have become an integral and invaluable part of our team…In many ways your [Louise Byrne’s] research, advocacy and training has helped contribute to this success.”
Dr Melody Fudge, Regional Director Open Arms, Veterans & Families Counselling
“The most exciting evidence-based lived experience/peer employment best practice model for employing these workers in multidisciplinary services to ever be launched in Australia. This is a must read for all employers and managers”
Louise Alexander, Executive Manager, Strategic Infrastructure Projects at Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation
“This just may be the most important contribution to changing the culture & practices of #mentalhealth services in a generation [The Byrne led Queensland Framework for the development of the Mental Health Lived Experience workforce].”
John Mendoza, Director, ConNetica Consulting Pty Ltd, Adjunct Associate Professor, Brain and Mind Centre, University of Sydney, former CEO Mental Health Council of Australia
“We engaged Louise to deliver Lived Experience literacy sessions for our whole Mental Health and Wellbeing
Division, Victorian Department of Health as a way to grow understanding about the difference between having
lived experience and developing and making use of lived expertise. She is able to engage people in a way that
is inspiring, informative, warm and authoritative.
Louise is able to draw on decades of research and evidence
along with her own lived experience.
Feedback from the division has been overwhelmingly positive and people
have subsequently asked for further opportunities to learn from her”
Lived Experience Branch – Mental Health and Wellbeing Division, Department of Health Victoria
“Dr Louise Byrne has played a central and critical strategic advisory role in the delivery of Mind’s Lived Experience Strategy. Over an 18 month period, she worked intensively with Mind’s Executive Group on developing lived experience literacy, supporting culture change and establishing a ‘What is Our Why’ statement for our organisation’s commitment to lived experience work. Louise worked with us in a highly collaborative yet challenging fashion and led us to develop a deeper and more grounded approach to Lived Experience in our organisation. She brought a deep connection to the evidence and research in this area and provided strong thought leadership. I highly recommend Louise as a strategic advisor for organisations seeking to make genuine and lasting commitment to Lived Experience.”
Gill Callister PSM, Chief Executive Officer, Mind Australia
“It can be difficult to put into words the impact of systems change work and working in systems, when your lived expertise creates professional friction and your passion for the work creates personal friction.
Louise Byrne eloquently articulates her experiences laying foundations in Australia for both the peer support workforce and lived expertise leadership roles that have elevated similar efforts in the USA.
Her influence in my life has been a blessing and I’m excited she is so generously sharing this talk! I highly recommend this video for both peer support workers and allies.”
Dana Foglesong, MSW, RCSWI, NCPS, CRPS, National Sr. Director, Recovery and Resiliency Services. Co-Chair, Magellan Ability Employee Inclusion Group
“We found a significant change in attitudes after people were exposed to the evidence [Louise’s research including the National Guidelines] and an increase in the confidence in the work that we were doing.”
“The National guidelines assisted us when designing our two Director of Lived/Living Experience (Consumer and Carer) roles and […] workforce structures that were needed to grow and support an emerging discipline.
Using the National Guidelines […] also provided the broader workforce with the confidence that the service was making decisions based on best practice evidence and building the acceptance of the LE workforce and expertise. We were able to provide education to the wider executive team […] about the National Guidelines.”
The Alfred Hospital, Victoria
“Louise’s newest gift to us is ‘Lived Experience Training’, an accessible and engaging suite of trainings that allow individuals and organisations to understand and embed the power of the Lived Experience workforce as promised by the [National] Guidelines.
The training followings the necessary staged approach to achieving mature readiness for the Lived Experience workforce by beginning with a whole of staff orientation and induction, to embedding foundational knowledge of Lived Experience workforce development within workforces and organisations.
Upcoming leadership and allyship training will be the keys to unlocking true transformation of mental health services. I can’t wait!”
Tim Heffernan, Deputy Commissioner, N.S.W. Mental Health Commission
“Louise has been an integral ‘go to’ Lived Experience Consultant/Expert to PHNs and across the health sector through the National PHN Mental Health Lived Experience Engagement Network (MHLEEN) and our Lived Experience Advocacy Delegates (LEAD) advisory group.
Her progressive Lived Experience Research series has informed many transformational developments as a result. Examples include recommendations for clear and detailed framework and led the development of the QLD Lived Experience Workforce Framework (2019) and the National Guidelines for Lived Experience Workforce.
At a local, regional and state level Louise has provided literacy, language and interpretation awareness through her co-production processes, research and websites.”
Paula Arro, National PHN Mental Health Lived Experience Engagement Network (MHLEEN)
“Congratulations to all who worked on this fabulous piece of work [the Queensland Framework for the development of the mental health Lived Experience workforce]! I’d also like to acknowledge the years of research that was undertaken that informed the development of the framework.
Congratulations Louise and team”
Daya Henkel, State-Wide Mental Health Peer Workforce Coordinator at NSW Ministry of Health
“One of the key drivers of change across the organisation has been the training Louise has provided across our executive, senior leadership and management teams. Louise’s training programs provide such clarity on the nature of lived experience, lived expertise discipline specific approaches and clear and practical examples for teams to take forward. Louise provides a unique and critical direct line to the evidence for what matters and how to be effective.”
Katie Larsen, Executive Director Lived Experience, Mind Australia
“An inspirational and in many ways practical map and manifesto for our times….setting us all a challenge and an agenda. Lots of food for thought, re power and expertise, whose voices are heard & heeded, Lived Experience leadership Vs. Co-leadership, the healing power, effectiveness and validity of shoulder-to-shoulder sharing of lived experience and traditional knowledges.”
Professor Alan Rosen, AO, Professorial Fellow, Australian Health Services Research Institute [AHSRI], University of Wollongong, NSW
“Thank you for your dedication to a thoughtful and elegant description of what’s happening, what’s needed, and how we can collectively as a community bring the value (and values) of peer support more fully into the systems in which they can have a real impact on hope and healing.”
Rita Cronise, Distance Faculty, Rutgers University, Academy of Peer Services
“These are very thorough materials developed by Louise Byrne and Australian colleagues, very relevant to our work.”
Jessica Wolf, Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research at Yale University
“[Dr Byrne’s] work has had a significant impact on Wesley Mission Queensland. It is proud to have implemented this work in full, both spirit and intended outcomes, and is now moving forward with a solid foundation proved to be effective.
This is informing work for other Queensland NGOs as they begin to formulate LE Workforce Development.”
Liz Asser, Wesley Mission, QLD