An Equal Role for Lived Experience-Led Mental Health Research
摘要
Lived experience-led mental health research remains marginalized despite policy calls for recognition and inclusion. The co-produced ‘Paths to Everyday life’ (PEER) trial showed that group-based peer support improves personal recovery, functioning and quality of life in community settings yet faced epistemic biases favoring clinical or service-defined outcomes, ethics restrictions on peer facilitation, and rejections from high-impact journals. This commentary urges funders, editors, and ethics bodies to promote power-sharing, user-defined measures like empowerment, and community-driven trials for equitable, sustainable mental health research and care.