Lived experiences at the heart of mental health transformation in Wales
Published 19 November 2025
Health Education and Improvement Wales (HEIW) and NHS Performance and Improvement (NHS P&I) are working together to develop a strategic plan for lived experience within the new model of care for mental health in Wales.
As part of the initial stages of plan development, HEIW and NHS P&I recently facilitated their first stakeholder event. Over 60 health and social care professionals, peer workers and people with lived experience come together from across Wales to discuss the importance and positive impact that lived experience and the growing peer support workforce has on patient care.
Lived experience refers to the first-hand, personal experiences of individuals who have faced mental health challenges, either directly or through supporting others. Mental health peer support involves individuals with lived experience using their knowledge and insights to help shape and deliver patient services, to support others facing similar challenges.
The peer support workforce plays a vital role in bridging the gap and building trust between professionals and the people they support. They are able to provide care that is personal, compassionate and relatable, which helps other individuals feel more comfortable discussing their own mental health challenges and increases their confidence to seek support.
The stakeholder event was full of discussion, insight and represented the continuation of an impactful journey in mental health care in Wales.
Aneurin Bevan University Health Board and Cardiff and Vale University Health Board both hosted talks about the positive impact that peer support has had on their mental health services and quality of care. The discussions were not only eye opening, but they were also incredibly inspirational. Peer support leads bravely touched on their own journeys of mental health and gave examples of how this has helped them deliver compassionate and transformative care to patients.
Feedback from peer support workers invited to the event was positive, with one individual sharing that “it was a really great opportunity to meet and exchange stories and ideas – we were particularly pleased to see how the conversation had moved on since the engagement events last year.”
The new model of care
In Wales, lived experience roles and peer support have been implemented for over 10 years, however not all health boards offer these services and there is no national approach to governance.
HEIW and NHS P&I proposed to change this through the development of a strategic plan for lived experience. The focus is on quality and equality of care across Wales and lived experiences will be at the heart of it.
The new model is not just about services, it’s about the workforce, compassionate cultures, and leadership. Real emphasis has been put on developing the workforce, with the launch of key initiatives including leadership and supervision hubs and a range of guidance to support the lived experience workforce.
Staff wellbeing and patient care go hand in hand and since the Mental Health Workforce Plan came into implementation, Wales has seen over 170 more full-time equivalent staff employed in mental health alongside evidence that we are retaining more staff within our psychiatry and nursing workforce than ever before.
This is a testament to the improvements being made across mental health in Wales, but the demand on services is challenging and ever increasing.
The new model proposes a more person-centred approach to mental health care, focusing on the individual’s strengths, relationships and their communities. The model will be more flexible, providing open access to mental health services, and most importantly, it will offer equity of care across Wales.
The plan is still in the early stages and there is a lot of work to be done, but a similar model of care has been implemented in Canada, ‘ Stepped Care’, and the data is overwhelmingly positive with waiting times significantly reduced and the quality of patient care improved.
Following the event Dr Chris O’Connor, Clinical Lead in the Strategic Programme for Mental Health, NHS Performance and Improvement said,
“It was a pleasure to be part of the event. We know that having the opportunity to receive support from a peer with lived experience of mental health difficulties can be incredibly helpful and for many life changing. We have a great opportunity to build on some the excellent practice that is already in place in order to ensure that peer support is a fundamental part of the open access mental health support model moving forward across all of Wales.”
HEIW and NHS P&I aim to complete the strategic plan for lived experience by 31 March 2026.
Visit the HEIW website to stay up to date and learn more about the wider work on the Strategic Mental Health Workforce Plan for Health and Social Care.