{
  "id": 13661602,
  "title": "WELLNESS: Lived experience can connect the healthcare dots when it gets a say",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/11/wellness-lived-experience-can-connect-the-healthcare-dots-when-it",
  "topic": "health",
  "section": "Health & Medicine",
  "published": "2026-10-11T06:41:08.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Daily Maverick",
    "slug": "daily-maverick",
    "url": "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026-10-11-lived-experience-can-connect-the-healthcare-dots-when-it-gets-a-say/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Global mental health advocacy recognizes the value of lived experience in healthcare, as people with personal knowledge of mental illness can provide crucial insights. Deborah Phehla, who died by ingesting harmful materials, was one of hundreds of mental healthcare patients who were relocated from a Life Esidimeni facility but had a paper trail warning of her behavior. However, her warning failed to reach anyone with the power to act.\n\nThis year, the World Health Organization (WHO) is highlighting the importance of lived experience as part of World Mental Health Awareness Month. The organization wants to recognize the knowledge of those with lived experience as a vital form of expertise, calling for their voices to shape policies, services, and decisions that affect their care.\n\nLived experience is defined as personal knowledge or understanding gained through direct experience, which goes beyond what others have merely heard or learned. This year's theme aims to invite people with lived experience into decision-making processes. In recent years, South Africans such as Lasizwe Dambula, Trevor Noah, and Bonnie Mbuli have shared their mental health experiences, helping to humanize mental health conditions and reduce stigma.\n\nProfessor Laila Asmal, a psychiatrist and researcher at Stellenbosch University, notes that the focus on people with lived experience aligns with growing evidence that services become stronger and more effective when shaped by those who use them. In South Africa, the tragic case of Life Esidimeni exemplifies the consequences of ignoring the gap between lived reality and service design.\n\nProfessor Stephan Rabie, chief research officer at the University of Cape Town's Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, argues that lived experience remains undervalued in research, care, and policy. Stigma often pushes this knowledge underground, deepening isolation and withdrawal. Testimonies, however, can facilitate peer support and inspire hope for recovery.\n\nResearch from the WHO and the Lancet Commission, published in 2022, emphasizes the central role of people with lived experience in destigmatization. Those who hold leadership positions bring unique expertise to the work, offering insights from their own experiences with conditions, treatments, and societal challenges. Genuine inclusion requires shifting power dynamics, ensuring that institutions such as hospitals, research institutions, and governmental departments value and act upon the expertise of people with lived experience.",
  "summary": "Global mental health advocacy acknowledges the value of help from people with intimate knowledge because of their personal experiences.",
  "key_points": [
    "Lived experience valued in global mental health advocacy",
    "WHO highlights lived experience in World Mental Health Awareness Month",
    "South Africans Lasizwe Dambula, Trevor Noah, Bonnie Mbuli share mental health experiences"
  ],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}