Service Users in Academia Symposium

The Service Users Academia Symposium (SUAS) is a peer-led event that brings people with lived experience together with their counterparts and allies in academia across New Zealand and Australia. The broad aim is to explore the challenges of, and opportunities for, creating and maintaining Lived Experience leadership and co-production in mental health and addiction.

Our theme for this symposium is derived from a whakatauākī by Sir Hemi Henare –

'Kua tawhiti kē tō haerenga mai, kia kore e haere tonu. He nui rawa ō mahi kia kore e mahi tonu'

'We have come too far not to go further. We have done too much not to do more'.

This symposium seeks to explore how we can continue to advance the inclusion of lived experience expertise in academia and welcomes anyone involved with, interested in, or aspiring to pursue co-produced and/or lived experience led initiatives in mental health and addiction scholarship.