Lived experience the engine of change

I’ve spent my career trying to answer one question: how do we change the way the world sees mental health? After three decades in the sector, working on campaigns across England, Scotland, New Zealand and beyond, I’ve learned that tackling stigma and discrimination isn’t about slogans or soundbites. It’s about shifting culture, and that begins by giving people with lived experience the power to lead.

When I started working in mental health communications, it was clear that stigma sat like a shadow over everything we did. It shaped public attitudes, silenced conversations, and limited the impact of every policy, service, and prevention effort. You can build the best mental health strategy in the world, but if shame and discrimination still define the public response, progress will always stall.

That’s why I’ve dedicated my work to creating evidence-based, lived experience-led campaigns that drive measurable social change. From the “Time to Change” campaign in England to the “See Me” campaign in Scotland and the early Black Minds (now “Nōkautī Ow”) initiative in New Zealand, the lesson has been consistent: if you want to change behaviour, people with lived experience must be at the helm.

Evidence Before Assumptions

When we launched “Time to Change”, we made a conscious decision to treat social change like a science. Our campaign wasn’t designed on intuition or good intentions, it was grounded in data, tested through rigorous evaluation, and constantly adapted to what we learned.

Every year, we drew on academic data from King’s College London, analysing trends in public knowledge, attitudes, and intended behaviour. We asked the hard questions: who had shifted, who hadn’t, and why?

The answers guided our next moves. For example, we realised that while general attitudes were improving, men, particularly those in lower socio-economic groups, remained largely unmoved. Many didn’t see mental health as relevant to them at all. So we reframed our approach: instead of asking men to “talk about mental health”, we asked them to look out for their mates.

Campaigns like “In Your Corner” grew out of that insight. We used role modelling, humour, and cultural touchpoints that resonated with male audiences. It wasn’t about empathy slogans or awareness ribbons, it was about behaviour, spotting when someone’s struggling and stepping in.

Inclusion Means Integration

One of the strongest lessons I’ve learned came from working with African and Caribbean communities in England. Our data showed gaps in engagement and outcomes, so we set out to listen. Through focus groups and partnerships with community leaders, we heard a clear message: don’t single us out with a separate campaign.

They didn’t want to be portrayed as having “a problem”. They wanted to be fully integrated, visible within the broader national movement, but with representation, leadership, and cultural relevance embedded throughout.

That’s exactly what we did. We funded over 60 local projects, with more than a third led by African and Caribbean organisations. We supported cultural festivals, music events, and community-led initiatives that brought people together around shared experience.

Change Is Possible

Scepticism is easy. It’s easy to believe stigma is too deeply rooted, too cultural, too big to move. But we’ve seen it shift. National data from “Time to Change” showed measurable improvements in public attitudes and intended behaviours. More people reported being willing to live, work, or be friends with someone who has a mental health problem.

We achieved that through consistency and evidence, not one-off campaigns. Ten percent of our budget went to evaluation, and every message we released was tested, refined, and retested with our target audiences.

This wasn’t about the mental health sector talking to itself. We were talking to the people who caused stigma: employers, families, friends, the public. That’s uncomfortable to say, but it’s true.

And that’s why I always stress that people in the sector, even those of us with lived experience, are not our own audience. We can lead, strategise, and oversee, but the messaging must be shaped with and for those whose attitudes we need to change.

Building a Movement, Not a Moment

As I work now with partners across Australia, including the Queensland Mental Health Commission, I keep coming back to one core truth: change is both needed and possible. But it demands courage, collaboration, and humility.

We have global evidence through the Lancet Commission, WHO toolkits, and decades of evaluated practice that shows what works. We have communities ready to lead. What we often lack is political and institutional will.

Because this is not just about awareness, it’s about equality. It’s about dismantling discrimination so deeply ingrained that it has shaped policy, healthcare, and everyday life.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned after all these years, it’s that stigma can be dismantled. Slowly, imperfectly, but undeniably. You need resource, leadership, and evidence, but most of all, you need belief.

Change is possible. We’ve seen it happen, and it’s time to make it happen everywhere.

Sue Baker OBE

Global leader with significant track record, influence, and networks in the mental health campaigning and anti-stigma fields working with Governments, global bodies, NGOs, funders, researchers, and lived experience networks. 

Founding Director of the Time to Change and the Time to Change Global programmes based at Mind with over 30 years experience in the NGO sector.  Now providing a range of services via her global consultancy including evidence-based approaches to addressing stigma and discrimination,  marketing strategies, and management consultancy and coaching across a range of sectors.