SERVICE USERS IN ACADEMIA SYMPOSIUM 2025
About Service User Academia Symposium
BACKGROUND
The Service Users Academia Symposium (SUAS) is a peer-led event that exists to bring professionals, peer workers and Lived Experience leaders together with their allies in academia from across New Zealand and Australia. We provide a platform to explore the challenges of, and opportunities for, creating and maintaining Lived Experience leadership and co-production in mental health and addiction.
This symposium seeks to explore how we can continue to advance the inclusion of Peer & Lived Experience expertise in academia. Over two days whānau from across Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia will showcase the work they are doing, hear from keynote speakers, take part in both education and co-creation workshops and identify opportunities for our collective voice to shape the mental health and addiction landscape.
HISTORY OF SUAS
The Service Users in Academia symposium has been run annually since 2011. Initially named 'University Challenged' a group of lived experience academics based in Aotearoa New Zealand started this symposium for the purposes of advancing the discipline of service user academia - the meaningful involvement of service users in mental health and addiction research and teaching.