In March of 2024, we published a report entitled ‘Exploring “community” and the mental health lived experience landscape‘. This piece of research examined whether those with lived experience of mental ill-health, distress and trauma (who may have very different experiences and viewpoints to each other) could be considered a “community”, and also how the terms “community” and “lived experience” can be assumed or forced upon us from outside. It explored the complexities of claiming, building, representing, and working with communities: how people can be harmed, who is left behind, and how the terms “community” and “lived experience” can be co-opted for interests other than our own.
Almost a year on, we’re interested in re-examining the meaning of ‘lived experience’: how it is understood, who it ‘belongs’ to, its limitations and responsibilities.
We would like to publish several blogs by people with lived experience of mental ill-health, distress and trauma considering the topic “the limitations of lived experience”.
In this context, we use the term ‘lived experience’ in relation to mental ill-health, distress and trauma. The term is used both to signal intersecting experiences within a wider community and connect with others, and/or to denote expertise e.g. as a ‘lived experience researcher’ or ‘expert’.
Areas of focus could include:
- Who controls how ‘lived experience’ is defined and put to use? Who might be excluded because of this?
- Can a ‘lived experience community’ truly exist?
- The weaponisation of ‘lived experience’
- The challenges of doing ‘lived experience’ work/activism
- The co-opting of ‘lived experience’ identities (for example, as a tickbox or ‘rubber-stamping’ exercise in inadequate co-production and involvement opportunities)
- The professionalisation of ‘lived experience’ (for example, in the NHS and research institutions)
These are just suggestions: you’re welcome to pitch your own ideas and responses to the topic of “The Limitations of Lived Experience”.
Guidelines – please read before pitching
Payment to the writers of commissioned pieces will be £150. Please note that we are expecting to receive more submissions than we are able to commission.
The commissioned blogs will be published on the NSUN website in our Member’s Blog – if you want to get a feel for the types of first-person pieces we are looking to publish by people with lived experience, to inform your pitch, do have a browse of the blog.
We ask that you join as an NSUN member for free if you have not already: sign up here. We won’t be commissioning pieces by non-members (people without lived experience of mental-ill health, distress and/or trauma).
We are looking for commissioned blogs to be between 500-1000 words in length, but this can be flexible.
We will only be commissioning U.K. based writers with lived experience of mental ill-health, trauma, and/or distress.
We are looking for blogs that respond to the theme/potential areas of focus with your own thoughts, feelings, and experiences if you wish to share them, not for academic or traditionally journalistic articles which may involve research, case studies, and data analysis, but you are welcome to write something that references, or links to, other pieces/sources. We don’t usually publish pieces that focus on giving advice to others.
We are not currently looking to commission fiction or poetry.
There is the option to publish the piece anonymously or first name only/under a pseudonym.
We are asking for pitches of around 200-300 words to tell us what you want to write about, which ideally will be in the format of an initial outline of your proposed piece. Please feel free to include links to your writing if you have any, though this is not essential.
Timeframe
We are asking for pitches by Monday 3rd February at 9am, and we are looking to commission and publish selected pieces from the end of February, spread across several weeks. You can email us at info@nsun.org.uk if you have any questions, but please submit your pitch using the Google Form below. We will try to get back to you as soon as we can after the submission deadline to confirm whether or not we are able to commission your piece.