SHARC has serious concerns about the implications of the Silver Review and its associated reforms on the inclusion of lived experience leadership within Victoria’s mental health and wellbeing system.
Released last Thursday, the Review proposes cuts to Victoria’s public service, including a tranche of money-saving measures related to mental health.
The Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System made it unequivocally clear: lived experience must be at the heart of reform. This principle has driven the creation of peer-led services, advisory structures, and leadership roles that ensure the voices of those with lived experience inform policy, service design, and delivery.
These roles are not optional—they are foundational to a system that is compassionate, responsive, and effective.
The proposed removal of lived experience leadership positions from both the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission and The Victorian Collaborative Centre for Mental Health and Wellbeing is alarming. These bodies were established to embed lived experience perspectives at the highest levels of governance and decision-making.
Eliminating these roles would dismantle mechanisms designed to uphold accountability and co-design, directly contradicting the Royal Commission’s recommendations.
Lived experience leadership provides:
- Authentic insight into systemic gaps and barriers.
- Improved engagement with people in distress, reducing stigma and fostering trust.
- Evidence-based benefits, including higher satisfaction and recovery rates.
Eradicating these roles would compromise service quality and send a damaging message—that the voices of those most affected by mental health challenges are expendable.
Importantly, the co-CEO model outlined by the Royal Commission exemplifies what is possible when clinical and lived experience leadership share power, learn together, and model collaboration for the entire system.
The system is at a critical juncture: we have a large frontline lived experience workforce that needs hope and tangible examples of partnership at senior levels, particularly in system steward organisations.
Removing senior lived experience leadership now could not come at a worse time. Developmentally, the system is ready to see hybrid clinical and lived experience workforces operate in true partnership.
SHARC, and our sister organisations, have worked tirelessly towards readiness over the past three years. Without this leadership at The Victorian Collaborative Centre for Mental Health and Wellbeing, the sector loses the exemplar it needs to make this vision a reality.
SHARC calls on the government to:
- Publicly reaffirm its commitment to lived experience as a cornerstone of mental health reform.
- Ensure structural changes preserve and strengthen lived experience leadership roles within the Commission and The Victorian Collaborative Centre for Mental Health and Wellbeing.
- Engage meaningfully with lived experience leaders and organisations before implementing reforms that affect these roles.
Victoria has led the nation in mental health reform. We cannot afford to reverse this progress.