The ALIVE National Centre Lived-Experience Research Collective provides a tailored Lived-Experience research capacity building program, supporting career development pathways for Lived-Experience researchers and researchers who identify as bringing family, carer, or kinship group expertise to their work. The Lived-Experience Research Collective also recognises that some people bring dual expertise.
The Collective offers a place to grow expertise to share skills and knowledge and an opportunity to be involved in the strengthening and integration of Lived-Experience within mental health research and translation activities. The aim is to grow Lived-Experience and carer/family/kinship group peer research communities online as well through our discussion Forum.
Membership of the Collective is open to people with Lived-Experience enrolled in university higher-degree programs, and all researchers at all stages of their career who identify as Lived-Experience researchers or as researchers bringing carer, family, and kinship group experiences to their research and roles. This includes people with Lived-Experience based in community or government organisations engaged in research. We suggest that people who partner for co-design and co-production in mental health research who identify as having Lived-Experience either as someone living with mental ill-health and distress, or as a carer, family or kinship group member might like to join activities for public co-design and the Co-Design Network https://alivenetwork.com.au/our-networks/co-design-living-labs-network/.
Collective Involvement in Research
As described our aim is to bring together people with lived-experience together as a community, for research capacity-building and networking. This includes opportunities to contribute to research projects as co-researchers within the ALIVE National Centre across all stages of research, from design to translation. However, please note that we do not advertise or recruit for research projects that are outside of the ALIVE National Centre. Requests to circulate email invitations, post to noticeboards or identify Collective members for external research project roles will not be progressed at this time.
Lived-Experience Research Leads
Alyssa Morse
Lived-Experience Research Co-Lead
Australian National University
Alyssa (B Psych (Hons), AMusA, PhD) is a lived experience researcher at the Centre for Mental Health Research, The Australian National University, where she commenced her Suicide Prevention Australia (SPA) Post-Doctoral Fellowship in 2022. Her Fellowship project aims to establish the feasibility and effectiveness of the Safe Haven services in South Western Sydney LHD as a genuine alternative to the emergency department for people experiencing suicidal crisis. Alyssa’s broader research interests include (1) improving lived experience involvement in health research, services and policy, (2) youth mental health, and (3) mental health service evaluation and design. Alyssa is committed to community engagement and participation, and regularly collaborates with local NGOs, consumer and carer peak organisations and government. She has extensive experience conducting exploratory research and evaluations of mental health and wellbeing programs from a lived experience perspective, using quantitative and qualitative approaches.
Rosiel Elwyn
Lived-Experience Research Co-Lead
University of the Sunshine Coast
Rosiel Elwyn is a Master of Psychology graduate at the University of the Sunshine Coast’s Thompson Institute, where they are now studying their PhD focusing on the role of trauma and the gut microbiome, in development of anorexia nervosa. Rosie has a background in peer support work, lived experience research and lived experience lecturing, and consumer consultancy. They have presented at national and international conferences on suicide prevention and eating disorders, and are currently involved in collaborative projects in body image, suicide prevention, eating disorders, and decreasing stigma for professionals with lived experience of mental health concerns. Rosie also does Lived Experience presentations at hospitals, universities, and mental health forums, with a particular focus on reducing and learning from iatrogenic harm, making reparations, and trauma-informed care practices for individuals with complex mental health needs and neurodivergence.
Caroline Robertson
Lived-Experience Research Co-Lead
Griffith University
Caroline’s research spans the examination of the effect of physical activity on both the physical and mental health of people living with mental illness, as well as exploring the implementation and evaluation of novel healthcare models across rural and regional Australia. She has a background in exercise physiology and has a strong understanding of the physical health comorbidity disparities faced by those with mental illness. Caroline has experience in mental health policy and advocacy, advocating for people with mental illness to have better access to physical health care professionals.
Hayley Purdon
Lived-Experience Research Co-Lead
University of New England
Hayley is an advocate for people with lived experience of suicide. After surviving a suicide attempt, Hayley got involved in many advisory groups in order to change the way we prevent suicide in Australia. She has worked with organisations such as Suicide Prevention Australia, Black Dog Institute, Lifeline, Commonwealth Department of Health, Roses in the Ocean and many University institutions in her work. Hayley is also a PhD candidate at the University of New England and holds postgraduate qualifications in suicidology, applied data analytics and human factors (aviation). She has recently launched CriticLE to promote critical thought in how people with lived experience of suicide are engaged in suicide prevention activities. She does all this in her spare time with her full time role being in aviation regulation with the Commonwealth Government. Her work would not be possible without the company of her dog, cat and partner who provide all forms of support.
Rebecca Cooper
Lived-Experience Research Co-Lead
The University of Melbourne
Rebecca Cooper (she/her) is currently studying her PhD at the Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre at The University of Melbourne, under the supervision of Drs Vanessa Cropley and Maria Di Biase. Her thesis is focussed on the role of sleep and sleep-related behaviours on brain development, and the implications this has for psychopathology, particularly during adolescence. She has a background in biomedical science, and studied motor and sensory symptoms in schizophrenia during her honours year. In the future, Rebecca hopes to pursue further research at the intersection of neurodevelopment and mental health and illness, and to investigate antecedents and predictive factors for mental disorders.
Cassandra Heffernan
Lived-Experience Research Co-Lead
Australian National University
Cass has lived & living experience of Bipolar Disorder Type 2. Initially working as a Registered Nurse for 15 years, she decided she wanted to do more to advocate for others with mental ill health & suicidality due to her own & her family’s experience of mental ill health, particularly coming from a cultural background that does not recognise mental illness. Completing a Master’s in Public Health at the University of New South Wales in 2018, she worked with the Black Dog Institute as a Senior Lived Experience Advisor on various suicide prevention and mental health projects, contributing to the development of their Lived Experience Engagement Framework & LE Resource Centre. She is now a lived experience research officer at the Centre for Mental Health Research at the ANU, continues to work on the Black Dog Institute LE Steering Committee & is the chair of the LE Research Partners committee for The Mental Health Australia General Clinical Trials Network. She is passionate about ensuring lived experience involvement and appropriate engagement throughout suicide prevention and mental health research.
Caroline Walters
Carer/Family/Kinship Research Co-Chair
Monash University
Caroline Walters is a post-graduate student and teaching associate at the Department of Social Work, Monash University (Australia). In her role as Senior Advisor at Tandem (the Victorian peak body representing family and friends supporting people living with mental health challenges), Caroline engages in Mental Health System advocacy through supporting and promoting the voice of family and carers of people with mental health challenges. With a strong belief in relational and inclusive family practice within mental health, Caroline is interested in participatory methods of research and system reform that centres and promotes the voice of family and supporters and the people they support. Caroline is both a social worker and a registered nurse, with 10 years of research experience calling on a diverse practice of research methodologies to encourage inclusion and fair evaluation of programs.
Douglas Holmes
Carer/Family/Kinship Research Co-Lead
Supercro
Douglas Holmes, OAM is a historian and researcher, a student with University of Newcastle. He is a founding member, secretary, and project manager for SUPER CRO, a charity registered in 2018 run by consumers for consumers. He has worked and volunteered in mental health services since 1992 when he received a diagnosis of Bipolar Affective Disorder, including six years as the Executive Officer with the NSW Consumer Advisory Group, Mental Health Inc and 12 years with St Vincents Hospital in Darlinghurst as the Consumer and Carer Participation Co-ordinator. In 2014 he received a TheMHS Exceptional Contribution Award
In 2018 Douglas was awarded an Order of Australia medal in the General Division for his contribution to community health. In 2021 he was contracted by Mental Health Carers NSW to develop a Carer Advocacy Network across NSW. This is combined with working on a degree with University of Newcastle and playing the odd game of marbles and thinking about writing his memories.
Heather Lamb
Carer/Family/Kinship Research Co-Lead
Australian National University
Heather has lifelong experience supporting family members who have experienced schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, anxiety and depression. She worked in Perth in the 1990’s as an Occupational Therapist in both hospital and community settings in the area of mental health. Over the past 15 years in Canberra, Heather has worked in home and community care (aged care focus), in a carer advisory role, and as a peer educator with the ACT Recovery College trial. She also completed a Graduate Diploma in Pastoral Counselling in 2017. Heather values the opportunity to work with others while reserving time to support family and maintain community volunteering connections. Currently Heather is working as a Research Officer with the Lived Experience Research Unit, Centre for Mental Health, at the Australian National University. Heather’s combined experience in personal, volunteer and professional roles gives her insights from a number of perspectives which will provide a valuable contribution to both ALIVE and the wider community.
Alana Fisher
Carer/Family/Kinship Research Co-Lead
Macquarie University
Dr Alana Fisher holds a PhD in Psychology is currently a Research Fellow and Consumer Engagement Manager at Macquarie University. Alana’s research expertise is in better understanding and supporting consumer decision-making about and engagement with their mental healthcare, and the delivery of mental healthcare that is both evidence-based and person-centred. Alana’s lived experience expertise stems from being the close family member of someone with a chronic and relapsing mental health condition since she was a teenager. She is passionate about involving consumers in a meaningful way in mental health research and service design, to help ensure that these meet the preferences, needs, and priorities of the very people they are supposed to benefit. Outside of work, Alana enjoys doing pilates and barre classes, exploring new restaurants and bars, and spoiling her two nephews.
Tunde Meikle
Carer/Family/Kinship Research Co-Lead
Grampians Health
Tunde was born in Hungary and came to Australia as a refugee in her infancy. Despite living in poverty and having a dysfunctional family, she managed to go to Sydney University to complete a Science degree, majors Psychology and Botany, and then Sydney Teacher’s College to train as a secondary science teacher. At the same time as she undertook teacher training she also commenced a Master of Arts in Psychology at Sydney University completing it the following year. As if she didn’t have enough to do she also joined the Army Reserve as an officer trainee, then joined up full time for a few years in the Education Corps. Her MBA was completed in the early 2000s. After a short absence having children, she resumed Army Reserve service, this time in the Psychology Corps, and also spent several months undertaking nursing training before retuning to education. Eventually this led to a long career as an academic at Australian Catholic University, and Chair of the Academic Board for over a decade at an international private Higher education and RTO provider. Alongside she has spent around three decades on various Human Research Ethics Committees, another passion. For family reasons she was unable to complete her two PhD attempts – the first about post-natal depression (with a trauma focus), and the second about decision support systems in refugee law. Tunde currently works as a Lived Experience (carer) educator at Grampians Health in Ballarat, plotting research projects as she goes. She balances this with her art, gardening, writing and service as a volunteer firefighter.
Lana Earle-Bandaralage
Carer/Family/Kinship Research Co-Lead
Consumer Advocate
Lana is passionate about consumer advocacy, and she advocates for better health care for consumers in South Australia. Her direct experience is on women’s and children’s health care, research and innovation, improvement of quality & safety, CALD community health, vulnerable community health and mental health advocacy. She is a SA health registered trained consumer representative/advocate and she started her advocacy journey at the Women’s and Children’s Health Network in 2016. Lana is involved in co-designing/co-creation/collaboration/co-production activities, consumer consultation/ feedback sessions (virtual workshop host, kitchen table discussions lead), managing expos, staff training and work shop activities, sitting on advisory committees, chairing committees and being a listening post representative. She currently advocates and act as a consumer representative, consumer advocate, lived experienced mental health advocate, and a community representative at number of organisations and institutes. Her experience also includes providing consumer and community engagement strategies to department of health, SA health, public hospital, local and primary health networks, academic institutes, NGO services and research bodies.
