National Survivor User Network (NSUN)
We are a network of people and groups with lived experience of mental ill-health, distress and trauma. We come together to create, challenge and campaign. Join us.
About our organisation/network
NSUN, the National Survivor User Network, is an independent member network led by people with lived experience of mental ill health, distress or trauma. We bring together over 500 user-led or community-led groups, 4,200 individual members, and over 500 ally organisations across England, to support each other, share experiences and speak up. Our members’ lives are at the intersection of multiple marginalisations and disadvantages, including precarity/poverty, D/disability, racialisation, homophobia/transphobia, sexism and ageism. Many of our members define themselves as survivors of distress/mental health difficulties, the mental health system, institutional and interpersonal violence and/or systemic oppressions.
The change you want to see
‘Lived experience’ knowledge in mental health research and practice is often only seen as an optional, nice-to-have extra; a tick-box exercise to satisfy funding requirements; or knowledge which adds value to the main work which is being produced, but does not have the remit or power to change the questions being asked. NSUN wants to change this by building strong connections between people with lived experience of mental ill health, distress or trauma, expressing the value of lived experience knowledge at every level, and supporting user-led groups set up by and for the people who benefit from them.