SERVICE USERS IN ACADEMIA SYMPOSIUM 2025
About the Co-hosts
Co-hosts support the planning and delivery of the Service User Academia Symposium through:
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distributing and promoting all symposium related information widely through organisations, networks etc.
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contributing to the assessment of, and decision-making for, abstracts and scholarship applications
And contribute to the future of the symposium by committing to convening and physically hosting a symposium at least once every four years
Organisations (usually tertiary education or research organisations) can only become a co-host if their organisation has at least 1 ally and 1 lived experience/service user representative.
Auckland University of Technology (AUT) -
SUAS 2025 Host
The Faculty of Health and Environmental Science is the largest educator of health professionals in Aotearoa, New Zealand.
The Faculty has been involved in SUAS since its inception and its present involvement is centred around the Faculty's Advisory Group on Lived Experience of Mental Health and Addictions, which was established in 2018. This Advisory Group consists of lived experience experts external to the Faculty working with allies working as academics within the Faculty. The aim of the group is to assist the Faculty to create a vision of having lived experience expertise involvement in teaching, research and within the dynamic culture of the Faculty. It has also been instrumental in developing a bespoke academic pathway in the Faculty for those with lived experience.
SUAS2025's organising committee are members of this Advisory Group. It is our honour and privelege to be hosting this year's Symposium and we are looking forward to spending time with like-minded individuals. We can be contacted on: suas@outlook.co.nz
The Consumer Academic Program, Centre for Mental Health Nursing - University of Melbourne
The CentreMHN in the University of Melbourne (UoM) was the first in the world to employ, in an ongoing position, a mental health Consumer Academic (CA).
The Consumer Academic Program (CAP) employs a critical mass of consumer perspective thought leaders with a range of expertise including research, education and training, management, governance and service delivery. The team is made up of a diverse group of academics including a First Nations Consumer Academic to ensure the lens and experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples is captured and represented in work undertaken by our team. We acknowledge as a team the true history of Australia and want to be leaders in the academic space, ensuring this voice is highlighted and uplifted. We recognise the importance of honouring Aboriginal ways of knowing, being and doing and want this to be reflected in the work we do across the sector. CAP members work alongside and are supported by allies in a multi-disciplinary team at the CentreMHN including the Centre Director, nurse academics, senior consumer academic, research fellow and an events and communications officer.
CAP, the CentreMHN and the University of Melbourne are delighted to have an opportunity to co-host the Service User Academia Symposium 2025. We can be contacted on: cmhn-info@unimelb.edu.au
The University of Waikato
The Division of Health, University of Waikato, currently delivers education in nursing, midwifery, pharmacy, and sport and human performance. They are also undertaking the preparatory work to eventually offer a medical school.
Most recently they have also embarked on their service user academic journey. This has included Associate Professor Sarah Gordon, a veteran lived experienced academic, being appointed to develop and implement service user-led and co-produced teaching and research through the Division.
Associate Professor Tony O’Brien is the ally representative from the University of Waikato. He has worked as an ally with lived experience experts in a range of different capacities and is a staunch advocate for lived experience leadership and partnership. So, we are in the early stages of this journey and are the most recently adopted co-hosts.
We feel pleased and privileged that now, with a lived experience academic position having been established at Waikato University, we are able to be involved in SUAS in this way. We have very exciting plans for what our service user academic journey is going to involve, and we encourage you to watch this space.
We can be contacted on: sarah.gordon@waikato.ac.nz
World of Difference | He Ao Whakatoihara kore
University of Otago, Wellington – Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka, Pōneke
World of Difference | He Ao Whakatoihara Kore is an innovative education and research programme, entirely led and delivered by individuals with lived experience of mental distress. As part of the Department of Psychological Medicine at the University of Otago, Wellington, the programme is embedded in the medical curriculum. It provides medical students with a unique, lived experience-informed education focused on recovery and human rights.
The Department of Psychological Medicine, Wellington, has been a committed partner in the Service User Academic Symposium from its early days. We are committed to fostering co-production and lived experience-led research and education. Professor Susanna Every-Palmer serves as our ally representative, and Dr Snita Ahir-Knight, Programme Lead for World of Difference, is our academic representative with lived experience.
We are thrilled to have an opportunity to co-host the Service User Academic Symposium 2025. We can be contacted at wod@otago.ac.nz
Curtin University
The Curtin School of School of Allied Health is made up of the disciplines of Social Work, Occupational Therapy, Speech Pathology, and Physiotherapy, Exercise and Sports Science. Our school is in the Faculty of Health Sciences.
Our Valuing Lived Experience Program has engaged as members of the organising committee for several years. The Valuing Lived Experience Program is made up of one Lived Experience Academic (Lyn Mahboub) and one Ally Academic (Julie Netto since 2023).
The Valuing Lived Experience Project (VLEP) has successfully supported the School of Allied Health in meeting discipline and industry requirements regarding the valuing of lived experience since 2015. This work has focused on mental health and alcohol and other drug (AoD) service use.The highly innovative VLEP, has developed a program that engages people with lived experience and facilitates them to develop their ‘lived experience expertise’ so as to become Lived Experience (Peer) Educators. This means growing their skills and knowledge grounded in Lived Experience pedagogy and frameworks across the existing body of knowledge that sits under this emerging discipline’s work and across a range of teaching and learning practices.To date, the VLEP has facilitated lived experience teaching into 17 undergraduate and postgraduate units across Occupational Therapy, Exercise Physiology, Social Work and Physiotherapy, and trained 40 lived experience educators. Currently the VLEP has 22 graduates engaged in the Program.
Contact details:
Lyn Mahboub - L.Mahboub@curtin.edu.au
Julie Netto - j.netto@curtin.edu.au