What is an Expert by Experience?
Experts by Experience share with us their expertise and enable us to look at our work through a different lens. They help us to influence the way we do things, improve services, and give their point of view about the work we do at Buckinghamshire Mind.
Who are our Experts by Experience?
You don’t need to have used our services to be an Expert by Experience – just someone who has experienced mental health challenges and would like to use that experience to help others.
Experts by Experience work with us in partnership to influence the planning, development, delivery and evaluation of Buckinghamshire Mind’s activities. We believe meaningfully engaging people in our work will ensure it is informed by a broad range of experiences and will effectively meet diverse needs.
What do our Experts by Experience do?
Experts by Experience can get involved in various pieces of work across Buckinghamshire Mind. These projects could involve looking together at the wording and design of a fundraising campaign to make sure our language and message is appropriate. It could be sharing a mental health journey at an event or co-producing materials or policies.
We get together as a team online about once a month for a catch up and to check how things are going. When we have a project that comes in, we share it with the team and, if it is of interest, then you can apply to be involved.
Each opportunity will have a role description that will detail what the project is about, who the project leads are, anticipated project length and time commitment, details of renumeration (where applicable) and what you and Buckinghamshire Mind will gain from the project.
Before undertaking the role there will be a discussion with the project leads about the project and how we ensure we support you in any way you need. This could include additional training, technical support, provision for safe spaces, travel expenses, reminder calls/texts – anything that we can reasonably do to help you fully engage with the project.
Click here for the Expert by Experience Role Description
What do we give back to our Experts by Experience?
We pay our Experts by Experience for their time and reimburse their travel expenses. We will also ensure that your work on the project is recorded and that this is shared with you for future reference.
The experience will also help you to learn new skills, enhance your CV and meet new people and be involved in changing the mental health sector.
How to become an Expert by Experience
Just complete the form below, email us or ask a member of staff to put you in touch with the Quality team. Don’t worry if you’ve never done anything like this before, we have an informal conversation before getting started where we’ll talk to you about what support you might need and your areas of interest.
If you think you’d make a great Expert by Experience then please get in touch – we would love to hear from you. Please complete the form below or email [email protected]
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Influence and Participation
Please use this form to register your interest in participating in Buckinghamshire Mind's work.
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