Michael Elwan wins 2026 Australian Mental Health Prize in Lived Experience
Updated: Oct 12
Michael Elwan, Founder and Director of Lived Experience Solutions (LEXs), has been named the winner of the 2026 Australian Mental Health Prize in the Lived Experience category. The result was announced publicly on 6 October 2026.
The recognition sits alongside Michael's work in lived experience leadership, multicultural mental health, social work, governance and workforce development. It is a personal award to Michael, whose practice brings lived experience of caring, migration and suicide bereavement together with professional and organisational experience.
Lived experience that influences decisions
The practical question behind this work is what happens after people share their knowledge. An advisory group, a consultation or a lived experience role needs a clear connection to the decisions it is intended to influence. People also need to know who can respond, what authority they hold, and how the organisation will explain its response.
For organisations, that means attending to role clarity, preparation, payment, supervision and accountability. It also means distinguishing a recommendation from a decision, and a decision from an implemented change. These distinctions help people understand both the possibilities and the limits of their contribution.
Michael's consultancy through LEXs focuses on these organisational questions, including lived experience governance, co-design, workforce development and Lived Experience Workforce Reviews. The emphasis is on the structures that support people to contribute and on how their knowledge reaches those responsible for action.
Culture and context belong in the conversation
Lived experience is shaped by language, family, community, migration and experiences of services. A single person cannot represent every community or every perspective. Culturally responsive participation requires space for different ways of understanding distress, caring and seeking support.
Practical planning can include interpreting, accessible information, appropriate preparation and different ways to take part. It also requires attention to whose account is treated as credible, whose knowledge is missing, and whether participants can see what happened to their advice.
This focus connects Michael's work across multicultural mental health, professional supervision and training. Through LEXs, he designs and delivers learning for organisational leaders, practitioners and frontline teams, as well as carers, families and communities. Training can be commissioned independently or alongside consultancy.
Connecting recognition with practice
Michael is an Accredited Social Worker and the recipient of the 2025 AASW Social Worker of the Year award. He is also a PhD candidate at Charles Sturt University, researching organisational support for lived and living experience leadership in Australian mental health.
His earlier management experience included responsibility across ten statewide mental health services and around 75 staff. That operational background informs an approach to lived experience leadership that considers governance, workforce, resources and implementation together.
For organisations considering their next step, a useful starting point is one concrete decision: what needs to change, whose knowledge is needed, and who has responsibility to respond? Clarifying those questions can help shape a focused training or consultancy brief.
LEXs works with organisations across Australia on lived experience leadership, culturally responsive practice, training, consultancy and professional supervision. Enquiries can begin with the context, the intended audience and the decision or practice issue you want to address.
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