Sometimes the person who understands what you’re going through best is someone who’s been there too. This World Mental Health Day, Samson, Lauren and Tim share how their own experiences of mental health are helping them support others.

We all experience mental health differently. But there can be something powerful about talking to someone who doesn’t just listen, but understands some of what it’s like because they’ve lived through their own challenges too.

That’s at the heart of this year’s World Mental Health Day theme: ‘Lived experiences heard: real voices, real change’. And it’s something Samson, Lauren and Tim know first-hand.

Meet Samson, Lauren and Tim

As Peer Facilitators within our UOK Wellbeing Service, Samson, Lauren and Tim bring their own lived experience of mental health into the way they support others.

In these short videos, they talk openly about their experiences, why they chose to become Peer Facilitators and what can happen when we feel able to share what we’ve been through with somebody else

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It can help someone feel less alone. It can create connections. It can challenge assumptions about what people need. And, importantly, it can help shape support around the people actually using it.

Listening to lived experience isn’t about expecting someone to have all the answers because they’ve been through something themselves. It’s about recognising the knowledge and insight that can come from experience, and making sure there’s space for those voices to be heard.

How are you really feeling?

World Mental Health Day is also a good reminder to check in with ourselves. If things aren’t feeling quite right at the moment, there’s support available. How Are You Really Feeling?, a Sussex-wide resource brings mental health information, advice, and support together in one place. Lived experience and co-production were at the heart of developing it, helping make it easier for people to find the support that’s right for them.

You don’t need to wait until things feel overwhelming to reach out. And you don’t always need to have the perfect thing to say to someone else either. Sometimes, starting with “How are you, really?” – and making the time to hear the answer – is enough.