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Published 3 November 2026

Lived Experience at the MHP Summit 2026

researchers talking
Author name: Susannah Strong

Susannah Strong is PPIE Coordinator for the Mental Health Platform and chairs the Platform’s lived experience steering group. Here she reflects on the second MHP Summit and in person steering group meeting 2026, both held at Sheffield United Football Club.

Keep off the Grass 

The first thing that strikes you about a football ground as conference venue is just how much pampering the pitch gets! Looking after Sheffield United’s pitch is a full-time job and provided a great conversation starter at the MHP’s second Research Summit on 8 October and the MHP lived experience steering group meeting on 9 October. 

The venue also provided everyone a fantastic opportunity to "get the steps in", as delegates moved from one side of the much-pampered pitch to the other to attend sessions, carefully keeping off the grass.

MHP Research Summit SUFC pitch

The MHP Research Summit

The MHP Summit is first and foremost about research into SMI, though there was lived experience involved in every aspect of the day. It was really pleasing to see  Emily Wheeler opening the event frankly talking about her own lived experience, while others were  co-chairs, taking on speaker roles and delivering a series of Flash talks at the afternoon core session. 

Attending the second Mental Health Platform research summit I was impressed by how the focus on lived experience was much more prominent than in the previous year. It felt particularly significant to see the voices of people with lived experience given prominence alongside the latest biomedical research. 

John Gibson, member of the Social Health lived experience group and senior user researcher at McPin. 

While the Research Poster display highlighted the wide range of exciting academic   innovation present in current research into serious mental illness, the Complex Emotions Hub mask display showed what it feels like to have a diagnosis of severe mental illness. 

While research works to understand severe mental illness to find ways to improve outcomes for people who experience it, it is the meaningful involvement of people who understand and articulate what that experience feels like that brings research to life- makes it relevant and accessible to all. As evidence of this, The Complex Emotions masks are to reach a public audience at Sheffield University’s Festival of the Mind later this month. 

Read more about the Festival of the Mind
Masks at research summit

Steering Group in Person Meeting 

On 9 October, the MHP lived experience Steering Group met for its second face to face meeting. The MHP lived experience steering group includes members from each of the MHP’s six research hubs and it meets regularly to discuss and and shape platform wide activities. The group regularly reviews and shapes upcoming MHP Strategy, Awards, and Platform wide activities. 

After reflecting on the Research Summit,  Michael McTernan from DATAMIND LEAP led a "Postcards from the Future" session. He asked the Steering Group to forecast ahead to a time when they would be looking back and reflecting on the Steering Group and its role within the Mental Health Platform. We think "back-casting" may be the word to describe this activity. What would be the key highlights that people would remember? It could be a conversation, a person you met, a thing you learned, a role you took on for the first time.

people sharing ideas

Steering Group members brought images to illustrate what they would like to happen. They included a murky fog starting to clear as the Steering Group’s aims become more focused. This idea was also represented by the image of a lighthouse throwing out beams of light, a series of mountains being scaled by people with lived experience, both suggesting the challenges people have faced to be ‘in the room’. And, a stick of rock with lived experience all the way through reminded us all that lived experience should never be an add on. 

The session gave everyone a chance to visualise the significance of the Platform and  value of lived it has lived experience activity by the end of its lifetime. 

postcards from the future images

From Mountain Mapping to Ripple Mapping 

Over time,  the group aims to create a record of its work and impact. This year we returned to satisfyingly analogue way of working - a large roll of paper, post it notes and pens - and began adding to a map started in 2025. It has now become a 30-foot-long timeline showing all Steering Group activities since the beginning. They are all there - the successes, challenges, activities that didn’t work the way we thought they would. The learning is part of the group's journey.

An immediate task is how to transfer the content from the increasingly unwieldy physical map  online so the group can input, interrogate and work on it over the next year and beyond ... perhaps we will end up with a blueprint for lived experience activity within the Research world. 

Being in the room where it happens

Looking ahead, the Steering Group is ambitious to lead activities like in-person events and particularly keen to work with early career researchers to enable them to better understand the lived experience perspective. 

There was a consensus that there could be more collaboration between Platform Hubs in the future, between researchers and between people with lived experience alike. And, we should be creating more opportunities for  people with lived experience who have proven expertise in other fields, as well as opportunities to develop leadership skills. Fortunately, we still have time to develop these.

people sharing ideas

The conversation, trust and empathy between members of this group as well as a lot of humour, flowed on into lunchtime. The MHP lived experience steering group is something very special and while our online meetings are lively events all agreed there really is no substitute for being in ‘the room where it happens’. 

Steering group members