Listening to voices: Educators' perceptions of an online education resource

This project focused on the evaluation of an education resource, initially developed for the Charles Sturt occupational therapy course, to enhance the representation and inclusion of people with lived experience of mental health issues. To develop the resource, a Charles Sturt occupational therapy academic collaborated with Gateway Health and the Listening to Voices (L2V) project team to co-design an engaging, professional, and sustainable resource that aimed to facilitate deep and authentic learning. The intent of the education resource was to position people living with mental health issues as the experts, with the aim of encouraging health students and professionals to reflect beyond diagnosis and consider a person centred, trauma-informed approach to understanding mental health and mental illness. Exposing students to the expertise of those who have experienced the mental health system also aligns with state and national initiatives: “Engaging people with lived experience of mental illness is at the heart of Victoria’s mental health reform along with using personal insight to deliver better initiatives” (State Government Victoria, 2021).