Lived experience expertise is the unique wisdom gained through personal, first-hand experience of mental health difficulties, trauma or accessing mental health services.
Lived Experience Awareness Day, led by the HSE Mental Health Engagement and Recovery Office and supported by the Department of Health, was launched in 2025 and is marked annually on 15 October.
Lived Experience Awareness Day is a national opportunity to recognise and celebrate the knowledge, expertise, and contributions of people who have lived experience of mental health difficulties, including families, carers, and supporters.
It provides a platform for lived experience voices to be heard, valued, and respected and to demonstrate the impact of lived experience expertise on individuals, services, and society.
The day is not only about raising awareness. It is about demonstrating that people with lived experience should be active participants in shaping mental health services, policy, research, education, and community responses. Most importantly, lived experience should not simply be heard. It should have a meaningful role in shaping the decisions that affect people's lives.
15 October 2026 | National Lived Experience Awareness Day
#LivedExperience #LivedExperienceAwarenessDay
Get Involved
Event Guide
There are events celebrating the importance of Lived Experience throughout October.
Take a look at our Calendar below to learn more.
Resources
Learn more about the role of lived experience expertise in shaping mental health services and supports, and the mental health supports available across Ireland.
Sharing the Vision - A Mental Health Policy for Everyone
Sharing the Vision is Ireland's national mental health policy for 2020–2030, and the current implementation plan covers 2025–2027.
WHO Transforming Mental Health through Lived Experience
A World Health Organization roadmap for embedding lived experience expertise in mental health policy, services and communities.
Mental Health Europe: Resources for Co-Creation in Mental Health
Practical guidance, tools and examples from Mental Health Europe on co-creation in mental health.
HSE – Organisations that Provide Mental Health Supports and Services
Find mental health supports and services available across Ireland, including general and specialist supports, peer support, counselling, support groups, helplines and community-based services.
A co-created story
Lived experience should shape not only what we do, but how we do it.
That is why we were delighted to work with a designer with lived experience to co-create the branding for this page. Meaningful co-creation goes beyond consultation at a single point in time.
It means ensuring that lived experience informs every stage of a project, from its initial ideas and design to its development and delivery. By embedding lived experience from start to finish, we can create spaces, messages and resources that are more authentic, inclusive and grounded in the realities of the people they represent.