Lived experience

And basically, you need to watch the film to find out if they do.

Nice, nice.

I mean, obviously, Skid Tower is then written on your kind of taking, I suppose, from some of your personal experiences and your lived experiences.

Obviously, 18 at that time is it's a transitional period in your life.

And then there's so much transition as well happening surrounding you.

We are doing something different this season.

In their words, we are going to hear directly this season from people with lived experience in mental illness, mental distress, and find out directly from them their thoughts and their emotions and reaction to some of their treatments.

As we record this, it is World Suicide Prevention Day, September the 10th.

I'll begin by first of all saying if you find any of this triggering at all, 988 is the place to call right away.

It's actually a very emotional interview about what to expect if you do call 988 and what the reaction has been to some of the people who have made that call.

But first, I want to introduce you to Bill and Al.

Now, they actually work in conjunction with 988, speaking about their personal experience, their lived experience when it comes to suicide.

When I was younger and starting in the TV business, we were told never to even mention the S word on air.

So that's why when I see med students, like, saying they're interested in endocrinology, I'm like, "Yes, we need you, please." There's a huge shortage.

A- and the lived experience piece is huge.

When you find an endocrinologist that lives with Type 1, you just hit the jackpot there because I, I think on paper, like, you're looking at the numbers, you're looking at the CGM reports.

Not you, because you're in private practice and you could have more time to dive deeper, but for the most part, you're pulling up the report, you're looking at what the trends are, you're maybe making some suggested changes.

Oh, everything.

I think the biggest thing is visibility.

For me, how I use it beyond visibility and having a reach that allows people to know that we exist is I'm able to showcase my lived experience that, of how I look at diabetes, how I've transformed my life with diabetes, but also to show not just all the, the positives.

I'm somebody who will never showcase 100% time in range, will never say that I don't have highs, don't have lows.

And looking back at a kind of evolution of health care over the centuries since this text was written, and it's also a kind of personal story.

It's centering lived experience.

the patient's own experience, their subjective account of their health story as giving that significant weight, which is a core part of what narrative medicine is trying to teach.

And you shared some of that at one of the lab readings.

Absolutely, absolutely.

And that's where I think peer support has a real power because we are there as people with lived experience.

So we are there with lived experience of mental distress.

Every member of our staff has lived experience of mental distress or lived experience of bereavement by suicide.

You know, I have lived experience of mental distress that has come in many forms, one of which is around eating distress and an eating disorder.

I also live with major depression.

I have faced suicide many times.

And I just want to touch on what Meg was saying about being able to sit alongside someone and provide that mutuality and build those real connections.

So when you and I have this conversation, and we've talked about it in many different ways over the last handful of seasons, when we talk about suicide and suicide prevention, Neither one of us is coming at this from the position of a clinician or a counselor or from a textbook perspective.

You and I are coming at it from 100% trauma informed lived experience.

And for me, when I'm seeking out information or content or podcasts or articles, whatever it might be, that's the perspective I'm always looking for.

And this is not to invalidate in any way all the clinicians out there because they are hugely valuable.

And I know that you feel the same way because it's a unique perspective.

It is.

And you can't beat lived experience.

I mean, talk about being in the trenches.

So I'm Sabrina.

Um, I have lived experience of grooming, child criminal exploitation, county lines.

Um, due to that, I got a prison sentence, and I guess it's while in prison, you know, with all that time, um, just got me thinking about what I really want out of life.

This isn't what I wanna be doing.

Excellent.

So we, we'll come onto that a bit more about the consulting, the workshop stuff you do.

So, um, I guess firstly, like, we talk about county lines and, um, you know, professionals talk about cou- but I guess from yourself and lived experience, how would you ...

To you, how would you describe what county lines is?