Beyond Institutional Care: Why Lived Experience Should Inform Mental Health Professional Education

Abstract

The transition from institutional to community-based mental health care represents more than a change in the location of services; it requires a fundamental reconsideration of how mental health professionals understand care, autonomy, recovery, and expertise. Although contemporary professional education increasingly emphasizes person-centred and recovery-oriented approaches, people with lived experience often remain positioned primarily as recipients of care rather than contributors to professional knowledge. This Perspective argues that lived experience should occupy a meaningful role in the education of psychologists, social workers, nurses, and other mental health professionals. Narratives of institutionalization, recovery, stigma, coercion, community reintegration, and encounters with mental health services can illuminate dimensions of care that cannot be fully captured through textbooks, diagnostic frameworks, or professional guidelines. Meaningful involvement of people with lived experience may strengthen reflective practice, challenge stigmatizing assumptions, increase awareness of professional power and human rights, and support the development of more person-centred professional identities. However, such involvement must move beyond tokenistic participation and be grounded in ethical engagement, appropriate preparation, recognition of experiential expertise, and psychological safety. Integrating lived experience into mental health professional education should therefore be understood not merely as educational enrichment, but as an important component of contemporary, rights-based mental health training.