You can join the network as long as you have experience of poor mental health (or care for someone who does) and lived in West Sussex.

 

If you are already part of a lived experience group, you can still join us, but should appreciate that people who are not already in a network will often get priority for paid opportunities.

 

There is no obligation on you to actively participate, nor is there a guarantee that you will be provided with paid work. Places for paid opportunities will be limited, and prioritised in terms of meeting the specific service criteria, and enabling the involvement of people who are often excluded from engagement through health inequalities and/or protected characteristics.

 

Some things that membership of the network will provide include:

• A say in the development of the SCALE Network.

• Regular information about opportunities to use your lived experience in a variety of ways, such as responding to surveys that gather data to be used for further coproduction, co-facilitating training or events, or sitting on advisory panels.

• Support throughout your engagement with the network, including training, mentoring, peer support from other members, practical support to enable your participation in opportunities, and support around specific engagements – helping you understand requirements, plan your input and reflect on the experience afterwards.

• Information about support services throughout Sussex: what support they offer, how they provide that support, and who can access it.

• Updates about the outcomes of lived experience being used in services.

• An entry point to ensuring minority voices are included in service review and provision – removing barriers to access where possible.