Elevating People with Lived Experience: A Workbook of Strategies for Organizational Change Shaped by People with Lived Experience

This workbook has been developed to assist organizations with recruiting, supporting, engaging and promoting individuals with lived experience. It provides strategies and considerations to support organizational culture and practice that elevate people with lived experience; specifically those who:

• Are currently or have previously been impacted by mental health and/or substance use conditions. This includes those who have experienced a condition personally or are family members, caregivers, or supporters of those with mental health and/or substance use conditions.
• Individuals who have received or sought care in the Medi-Cal system.

This workbook is a result of the knowledge, experiences, vulnerability and thoughtful perspectives of a small group of leaders with lived experience including Khatera Aslami-Tamplen, Keris Jän Myrick, and Rayshell Chambers. This group of mental health champions have the lived experience of managing a mental health condition, leading and advocating for mental health within healthcare systems and as certified peer support specialists. Interviewed by Jennifer Clancey, a member of the Delta Center California State Roundtable, the strategies outlined here came directly from their conversation and the work they continue to do.