More Than a Story
What my Churchill Fellowship taught me about Lived and Living Experience
By: Maria Roberts
Why I undertook the Fellowship
Since my father died by suicide, I have drawn on my lived and living experience, including my own suicidality, suicide bereavement and supporting people I love, to influence service improvements and help professionals understand how people can be better supported.
My professional career has centred on health service improvement, and I have led transformation work for NHS England, Public Health England and the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities. When I led a suicide-related research project, I found almost no specialist guidance on gathering people’s experiences safely.
At conferences and events, professionals told me they were increasingly being asked to gather lived and living experience but had little consistent guidance on how to do this well. I also heard from people who described inconsistent communication and support. Some felt they were being ‘wheeled out’ at events, rather than their knowledge being genuinely valued and used to create change.
I undertook a Churchill Fellowship to explore how we could do this better. Having previously observed good practice in Australia, I returned to speak with over 40 people, including people sharing their lived and living experience and those gathering it.
Being heard is not the same as being valued
One message was clear: people do not share deeply personal and impactful experiences simply to be heard. They want their contribution to make a difference. Organisations therefore have a responsibility to ensure that people’s experiences are valued and used to create meaningful change.
Stephen Rothwell, a suicide survivor and campaigner for suicide prevention in Australia, described occasions when he had felt used or rushed, with no contact afterwards. He told me:
“There’s a difference between being heard and being used… I’m here to make a difference.”
Another contributor said:
“I kept being asked to tell my story, again and again, and there was no follow-up, no check-in, nothing. It left me feeling exposed, not valued.”
People also described how sharing their experiences could be deeply meaningful when the right conditions were in place. With a clear purpose, genuine influence, preparation and ongoing support, they felt valued, protected and respected. For some, contributing to change helped bring meaning to painful experiences and aided healing and growth.
What good practice looks like
I brought the learning from Australia together into seven themes. Three messages were particularly clear.
Safety is paramount. It cannot be added at the end; it must be designed into the process from the beginning. Asking whether someone feels ready to share is only one part of this. People need clear information, genuine choice, appropriate preparation and support, and follow-up afterwards. A trauma-informed approach is essential to creating and maintaining safety throughout.
Purpose is the foundation of ethical involvement. Without it, involvement can feel extractive rather than collaborative. People need to know how their experiences will be used and what difference their contribution has made. They should be involved early enough to shape projects and decisions, including at design and leadership level. Their time, commitment and expertise must be recognised and valued.
If we do not look after the workforce, we cannot look after the people. Professionals spoke about fearing getting it wrong and the effect that repeated exposure to painful experiences could have on their wellbeing. They need fit-for-purpose training, supervision and support. Responsibility for gathering lived and living experience well must sit with the organisation, not the individual employee.
People are more than their stories. Lived and living experience can shape the questions being asked, influence services and decisions, help make sense of research findings and strengthen evaluation. My vision is to see people’s experiences shaping, guiding and leading suicide prevention.
The main recommendation from my work is to co-produce a UK national framework and practice standard with people with lived and living experience and those responsible for gathering it. This would help create safer, more ethical and purposeful practice.
Making the learning count
Now that More Than a Story has been published, my focus is on turning its recommendations into practical change.
The report will be officially launched at a Grassroots HOPESHOW in October, and I am sharing the findings through conferences, professional networks and meetings.
And the work begins on development of standards…I am working with the National Suicide Prevention Alliance to establish a working group to develop standards for gathering lived and living experience. We plan to begin with one proposed standard, test and refine it in practice, learn from what works and then move on to the others. Alongside this, I am developing practical tools to help organisations assess their current practice and apply the learning.
As this work moves forward, people with lived and living experience must remain at its centre.
By drawing on what we have lived through, we can create something larger than ourselves: a deeper understanding of what people need, safer ways of working and meaningful change. That can only happen when people’s experiences are met with care, valued for what they can teach us and translated into action.
That is the purpose at the heart of More Than a Story.
I invite you to read the full report and consider how its principles could be applied within your own work and organisation. If you would like to speak with me about my work, please get in touch.
Churchill Fellowship Report: Maria Roberts - Winston Churchill Report UPDATED
LinkedIn: Maria Roberts | LinkedIn