MindLabs is excited to bring you a new series of workshops for May 2025 and we’d really appreciate your support to promote them to your colleagues and contacts.

We will be continuing our popular series on Keeping the Co in Co-Design and the Ethics in Lived Experience Research, perfect for new students and those looking for a skills refresher, so please help us to spread the word and encourage your audience to increase their knowledge in May.

Keeping the Co in Co-Design

Online workshop (participants must be available for all sessions)

This online workshop will be presented over two half-day morning sessions on the 6th & 7th of May 2025 and is for people who are interested in developing individual and/or organisational capability to engage in co-design projects relating to mental health, drug & alcohol and neurological disorders, and is open to people in a lived experience, clinical and/or research role.

Learning Outcomes

As a result of completing the workshop, participants will be better able to:

1. Explain the origins and benefits of co-design in health services.
2. Apply co-design values and principles to planning and facilitating co-design activities.
3. Foster relational practices and work effectively with power.
4. Plan co-design activities using appropriate methods and processes.
5. Identify key considerations in evaluating co-design processes and events.

Workshop facilitators

Brett Bellingham is a lived experience educator, researcher and a peer support worker. Brett has interest and experience in co-design and co-produced approaches to education, service provision and research. Brett draws on experience, knowledge and connection with the consumer/survivor/ex-patient movement, community development practices and mad studies.

Kath Thorburn has 30 years’ experience as a mental health worker, educator, facilitator and consultant, as well as personal experience supporting close family members. Kath has been involved in co-designing  and co-producing a range of education, service provision and social action events and resources. Kath has formal qualifications in education and occupational therapy, and is currently a PhD candidate at UNSW researching a co-designed approach to improving mental health consumers’ physical health in primary care settings.

REGISTER HERE

Ethics in Lived Experience Research

This workshop will be presented on the 21st May 2025 and will include a series of ‘ethical challenges’ working examples will be presented which will identify the strengths, challenges and potential options researchers may explore. This exercise will help to explain that there are no ‘black and white answers’ to the ethical challenges, but there are core principles that researchers need to keep in mind (linked back to the principles of safely involving people with lived experience outlined above). Participants will also be encouraged to share the challenges they have faced in relation to these issues and solutions they have developed, as well as any other challenges they may have encountered.

Workshop facilitator

Jo Farmer is a Lived Experience Consultant. Jo’s focus is to work with organisations to build the capability and capacity of their people to put the person back into the system and restore individuals’ and communities’ autonomy and empowerment. Jo’s work prioritises those who have been marginalised through her approach to evaluation and research, with the aim to ensure people are heard, have power, and can find and build community.

REGISTER HERE

These events are supported by the Mindgardens Neuroscience Network.

For more information, please contact the MindLabs team at mindlabs@mindgardens.org.au

About Mindgardens

The Mindgardens Neuroscience Network is a collaboration between UNSW Sydney, Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA), the Black Dog Institute and South Eastern Sydney Local Health District.

It integrates treatments and research for mental health, neurological and alcohol and drug disorders, focusing on real-world challenges, translating new research insights rapidly into clinical practice, and transforming the understanding, prevention, treatment and cure of these disorders.

The first of its kind in Australia, Mindgardens is a unique and highly concentrated hub of expertise, centred on the south eastern Sydney region but with the capacity to serve the whole NSW community and influence practice across Australia and internationally.

About MindLabs

MindLabs is a Mindgardens initiative that brings together skills, knowledge and expertise from across all Member organisations, building capacity, enabling collaboration and accelerating the transformation of ideas into innovative new treatments and supports. MindLabs offers:

• Support and guidance to researchers
• A learning hub for research training
• A consulting and advisory service