Resources on supporting the voice of persons with lived experience, family members, and caregivers

The Sharing Together initiative helped identify supporting the voice of persons with lived experience and caregivers as an evidence priority in Ontario. 

The top two evidence needs within this theme prioritized by Sharing Together stakeholders are:

• How to effectively and meaningfully engage persons with lived experience, family members, and caregivers in decision-making, and outcomes of integrating their experiences in organizational processes and system-level initiatives
• Strategies to build trust and reduce stigma that are informed by service users, including peer support models

Below are some EENet resources related to this theme:

• Family caregiver community of interest
• Strengthening your voice: A public speaking guide for people with lived experience of problems with prescription pain medication
• Faire entendre sa voix
• Be Safe: Youth with lived experience contribute expertise
• Best practices in peer support project
• The Ontario Perception of Care Tool: How does it impact programs and clients?

Here are some resources from our partners:

• Peer positive
• Northwest Toronto Service Collaborative
• Durham Service Collaborative
• Walking the Talk - A toolkit for engaging youth in mental health (Ontario Centre of Excellence for Child and Youth Mental Health)
• Family engagement roadmap (Ontario Centre of Excellence for Child and Youth Mental Health and Parents for Children's Mental Health)
• www.ottawa.ca/mentalhealthcaregiver - In partnership with several National Partners, including clinical, caregivers and those with lived and living experience, Ottawa Public Health developed a mental health caregiver guide to encourage caregivers to take care of themselves as well as those they care for. 
• Best practices in engaging families in child and youth mental health (Ontario Centre of Excellence for Child and Youth Mental Health)
• Engaging Service Users: Hatching Ideas - This repository of engagement resources contains everything from provincial and national guides to blog posts, including guides on engaging patients as partners at the point of care, and at organizational and system levels, and evaluting patient engagement. 

Stay tuned for more information and resources!

To read the Sharing Together Full Report, visit: http://www.eenet.ca/article/ontario's-full-evidence-priority-agenda-now-available

To read the Sharing Together Report in Short, visit: http://www.eenet.ca/article/ontario%E2%80%99s-evidence-priority-agenda-released