Co-creating learning through meaningful collaboration: Bringing together voices to inform mental health and wellbeing education for applied work readiness
This fellowship examined how co-designing education with people who have lived experience of topic areas can support psychologically safer learning environments. Lived experience, in the context of health professions education, refers to insights gained through direct experience of ill-health, service use, disability, cultural identity, marginalisation, caring, and other domains relevant to health professions. The project brought together learned and lived expertise to explore how educators can look outward to community expertise and inward to how personal experience shapes professional practice.
Why is lived experience a priority?
Psychological wellbeing is an urgent priority in higher education, recognised in the Australian Universities Accord as central to engagement, retention and academic success. Students in health disciplines experience greater psychological impact as curriculum often intersects with their own personal experiences. Lived experience inclusion in curriculum affirms the value of diverse perspectives alongside academic expertise, removes stigma around the lived experience, and models trauma-aware, intentional ways of bringing lived experience into learning and practice. Embedding lived experience in curriculum also aligns higher education with sector expectations where lived expertise is seen as integral, better preparing graduates to work collaboratively.
What was the purpose of this fellowship?
The fellowship aimed to strengthen co‑design practices by exploring meaningful ways to embed lived experience within teaching and learning. It focused on deepening understanding of how lived and learned expertise sit alongside one another. The purpose was to contribute to a more inclusive approach to learning and teaching that recognises lived experience as a vital form of expertise.
The key objectives were:
- Developing practical guidelines for ethical community collaboration in design of curriculum.
- Co‑designing new units with cross-disciplinary practitioners and people with lived experience.
- Supporting educators to integrate lived experience perspectives into existing curriculum.
- Inviting educators to consider their own lived experience and how it shapes their teaching.
What were the fellowship outcomes?
Establishment of community partnerships
1. Relationships were established with community organisations and individuals with lived experience of disability, neurodivergence, mental ill‑health, addiction, suicide and/or identity‑based marginalisation.
Development of resources
2. Guidelines and an annotated bibliography to support education‑focused lived experience collaboration were co‑developed through interdisciplinary and lived experience input.
3. These guidelines additionally informed the approach to research‑focused community engagement within the Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health.
New curriculum
4. Curriculum was developed for eight online postgraduate units and associated on-campus undergraduate units through co‑design with academics, researchers, practitioners, community agencies and/or people with lived experience. Content was aligned with priority areas as identified in the Victorian Mental Health and Wellbeing Workforce Capability Framework, such as addiction, family violence and suicide prevention.
5. A unique trauma‑informed online delivery approach was designed, augmenting existing frameworks.
Capacity‑building for educators
6. Educators in the School of Psychological Sciences were supported through a Community of Practice to engage in collaborative education-focused work with the community, with four units developing culturally informed curriculum with two culture-led community organisations.
7. A workshop on the relationship between positionality and pedagogy was developed and piloted by the fellowship recipient with psychology educators. A second workshop on safe and impactful lived experience storytelling was co-developed with a lived experience consultant and piloted with students and health profession educators. Both were subsequently adapted and delivered as a workshop through Monash Education Academy (“Who I am, how I teach: Educator identity as inclusive practice”).
What resources were developed?
The advances through this fellowship have been shared at numerous conferences (Australian Psychology Learning and Teaching, 33rd International Congress of Psychology, Australian and New Zealand Health Professional Educators, Trauma Aware Education, National Suicide Prevention) and in the following publications:
Johnston, K. L., & Brand, G. (2025). Integrating lived and learned expertise in psychology education. Nature Reviews Psychology, 4(3), 147-148. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44159-025-00413-5
Johnston, K. L., & Gullifer, J. (2025). Lived experience inclusion in psychology education: A survey of Australian tertiary institutions. Australian Journal of Psychology, 77(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/00049530.2025.2511882
Johnston, K. L., King, K., & Allen, C. (2025). Co-designing psychology education: Sharing expertise in suicide prevention and support. The Journal of Mental Health Training, Education and Practice, 20(3), 159-169. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMHTEP-02-2024-0019
Johnston, K. L., Siryj, N., & Maghidman, M. (2025). Learning through lived experience: A pilot workshop for health profession educators and students. Focus on Health Professional Education, 26(3), 1-5. https://doi.org/10.11157/fohpe-vol26iss3id811
Johnston, K., Thomas, J., Parry, N., Edwards, B., & King, K. (2025). “I have a practice”: Lessons from development of a lived experience leadership program. Transform Journal (Engagement Australia), 9(2), 76-81. https://engagementaustralia.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/TransformJournal_Vol9Issue2November2025_%E2%80%98I-Have-a-Practice_KimJohnston.pdf
How does the work from this fellowship inform future practice?
The next phase involves strengthening and expanding partnerships with community organisations and individuals to support a programmatic model of lived experience education-focused engagement across the School of Psychological Sciences, with learnings that can be shared across the Faculty. Impact will be evaluated through monitoring the uptake of co‑designed resources, longitudinal student and staff feedback, and sustainability and depth of community partnerships over time.
The resources developed will be refined and integrated into education and research processes across the School of Psychological Sciences. Their use will also be translated into practice across disciplines through the Inclusive Teaching Practices Learning Circle; a Deputy Vice Chancellor Education initiative to advance practices across the university that recognise and respond to student learning needs.
This fellowship has deepened dialogue about the role of lived experience in health professions education and will extend this impact through further research being conducted which examines trauma‑aware teaching across disciplines and psychology students’ perspectives on lived experience within the discipline. It has also highlighted gaps in evidence‑informed inclusive education practices for students with lived experience of mental ill‑health, which will guide the next phase of work.
References
Australian Government, Department of Education. (2024, February 25). Australian Universities Accord Final Report. https://www.education.gov.au/australian-universities-accord/resources/final-report
Department of Health. (2021). Mental health and wellbeing workforce capability framework. Victorian Government. https://victorian-mh-and-wellbeing-workforce-capability-framework-pdf