Consumers can be formally employed through contracts to contribute their lived experience expertise to research, healthcare improvement, or policy development.
Examples of Consumer Roles:
- Lived Experience Leads – Facilitate partnerships between researchers and the community, ensuring lived experience is embedded throughout the project.
- Peer Mentors or Navigators – Provide peer support and help shape patient-centred care by guiding others through healthcare systems.
- Advisory or Governance Board Members – Participate in ethics committees, funding review panels, or strategic boards to influence decision-making.
- Co-Researchers – Collaborate on research projects from conception and design through to data collection, analysis, and dissemination. They may also co-present findings at conferences or co-author publications.
To improve care for people living with chronic pain, a hospital employed individuals with lived experience as Lived Experience Partners, integrating them directly into the pain management team alongside clinicians and administrators.
Their roles included:
- Reviewing patient education materials to ensure clarity and accessibility
- Designing and facilitating peer support programs to foster connection and shared understanding
- Providing input into appointment scheduling to reduce patient burden and improve access
Based on their contributions, the team introduced patient-led goal setting as a standard part of treatment planning, ensuring care was more personalised and responsive to individual needs.
This partnership led to:
- Higher patient satisfaction scores
- Increased clinic attendance
- Improved health outcomes for patients
By embedding lived experience into service design and delivery, the hospital created a more compassionate, effective, and patient-centred approach to chronic pain management.
To ensure consumer perspectives are meaningfully embedded in research, a diabetes research institute employs Lived Experience Advisors who work alongside researchers, clinicians, and staff throughout the research lifecycle.
These advisors play a key role in:
- Co-developing research priorities and identifying patient-relevant outcomes
- Reviewing grant proposals to ensure study designs include meaningful consumer involvement
- Translating research findings into clear, accessible formats to improve public engagement and dissemination
This approach has led to:
- Research outputs with greater relevance and impact for the community
- The development of the institute’s largest and most active consumer network, built on strong community trust
- Increased participation in clinical studies
- Enhanced real-world applicability of research, bridging the gap between lab-based science and practical diabetes care
By embedding lived experience at every stage, the institute ensures its research is not only scientifically rigorous but also connected to the needs and realities of the people it serves.