“I felt like I was getting my voice back”: Looking back on Health Justice’s first year

The end of March marked the first anniversary of Health Justice!

With so much going on in our lives, communities, and the world, it feels hard to celebrate. But now more than ever, we’re in need of what Health Justice was created to advocate for: a compassionate, equitable mental health system that supports the dignity and rights of those who need it.

Over the last year, we’ve been working to ensure people with lived and living experience of the mental health system are central to our organization and have power to shape it. To do that, we have had to challenge assumptions about who has “expertise” and move beyond tokenistic ideas of representation. We have co-designed a different kind of governance model for Health Justice to support power sharing beyond traditional corporate ideas of governance.

Health Justice uses a community engagement governance model; our work is co-led by our Lived Experience Experts Group (LEEG). The LEEG meets bi-weekly, provides exceptional leadership, and shapes almost every aspect of our work.

To celebrate our anniversary, Executive Director Kendra Milne interviewed one of our founding Lived Experience Experts, Sarah, about her involvement with Health Justice.

Why did you join Health Justice’s Lived Experience Experts Group?

I wanted to speak out for myself in the first place. After doing the best I could to advocate for myself as an individual, I felt like I had no voice. I always knew I was not the only one who felt voiceless after their experiences in the mental health system. The concept of Health Justice was a dream for me. It was like a gift – better than individual advocacy. I felt like I was getting my voice back and I knew from the beginning it would be instrumental in my healing.

What have you learned this past year?

I learned that my experiences have value, and the value of my suffering as a leaping off point to help other people and to create change.  I have a deeper understanding of how to create change in the world. I also learned that I’m not alone and my voice is stronger together with other people.

What was your biggest highlight of the year?

The biggest highlight for me was when the Lived Experience Experts Group and staff met with the Minister of Mental Health and Addictions. Sharing my experiences at that meeting made me feel seen, all of a sudden, after I have been made to feel invisible for so long. I felt validated and it made me feel hopeful that change can happen.

Our Tuesday LEEG meetings are also always a highlight. However I am in my life and in my struggle, LEEG continues to feel like something that is making a difference. It’s a space for me to focus on something bigger than me.

What hope do you hold for the next year?

I hope we can see concrete change, that we can make inroads in education with the government and the public to raise awareness and educate people about what mental health law says and doesn’t say, what people with mental illness or substance use issues are and are not.

There are so many factors that create oppression in the current system and hopefully we will see some amendments to the Mental Health Act.