Thursday May 15, 2025

The Eastern Health Lived Experience Workforce team has won the Excellence in Collaboration in Education award for their incredible work on their Student Placement Program, as part of the Centre for Mental Health Learning’s (CMHL) inaugural Excellence in Mental Health Education Awards.

CMHL is the central agency for public mental health workforce development in Victoria.

Manager, Capability and Innovation, Zoe Lethbridge explains how this award highlights the collaborative ways the Lived Experience Workforce designed, delivered and evaluated their Student Placement Pilot which allowed Peer Supervisors to provide support, guidance and mentoring to Swinburne students.

“The Eastern Health Lived Experience Peer Work Placement Program is the first of its kind in a Victorian tertiary area mental health service. The design, delivery and implementation of our program was led by Lived Experience, with support from Eastern’s Learning & Teaching Directorate and our partners at Swinburne TAFE, who have deep expertise in clinical placement programs.

“Through a co-designed approach, we were able to create relevant, safe and inclusive learning opportunities that address historical challenges for students with lived experience, while empowering capability development within our Lived Experience Workforce,” she said.

Above: The Eastern Health Lived Experience Workforce team won the CMHL award for Excellence in Collaboration in Education Image: Eastern Health

Ms Lethbridge hopes the program will inspire similar initiatives in the future.

“Our program and two other Lived Experience led initiatives were recognised for excellence in mental health education at the CMHL awards, demonstrating the incredible value and leadership that Lived Experience brings to education across our sector.

“We hope this recognition paves the way to elevate other Lived Experience-led education initiatives across the mental health workforce,” she said.

During the pilot, 100 percent of the students successfully completed their placement, and saying they would like to come back and work with the Eastern Health LEW. Additionally, 50 percent of students secured paid employment with the workforce within three months.

Congratulations to the Lived Experience Workforce team.