Perspectives and Language

Portrait of a young aboriginal woman on an industrial background.

Diversity of perspectives and language in Lived Experience

Diversity of perspectives and language within Lived Experience (Peer) roles, workplaces, communities, and forums is critical to creating inclusive and representative practices. It is essential to engage with and learn from a diverse range of people who have a variety of lived and living experiences. This includes those who have faced social and structural barriers to accessing services, those with experiences of stigma, discrimination, criminalisation, and poverty, as well as those who have interacted with mental health and/or alcohol and other drug services from a range of perspectives — including both positive and negative experiences.

For example:

  • Individuals who have had negative interactions with healthcare or criminal justice systems may have unique insights into systemic barriers.
  • People who have accessed harm reduction services may have a different perspective from those who have accessed abstinence-based services.

While shared language is important, we acknowledge that language is dynamic and may vary across settings and sectors. The language used in Lived and Living Experience (Peer) Workforce practice continues to evolve alongside the discipline itself.

In this video we outline the importance of language.

Languages and Guides

Language preferences vary across individuals, communities, disciplines, and cultural contexts. Some people strongly identify with diagnostic terms and view them as part of their identity, while others experiencing them as stigmatising or limiting. Similarly, parts of the Lived Experience (Peer) community embrace the word “consumer” while others find it abrasive or culturally inappropriate. Within the alcohol and other drug Lived and Living Experience community, language often reflects a person’s self-defined goals—some may identify with ongoing substance use alongside harm reduction, while others may pursue abstinence. Language is personal and political, and no single term reflects all experiences or perspectives.

For example:

  • Terms and phrases such as “peer”, “consumer”, or “person with lived and living experience” may be used differently across mental health and alcohol and other drug settings, depending on context, culture, and workforce norms.
  • The term “carer” is widely used, particularly in legal, clinical, and service systems; however, not everyone who provides support identifies with this label. In the family and carer lived experience context, people may identify as carers, parents, partners, friends, kin, family, family of choice, or supporters — or may reject labels altogether. These identities are relational, diverse, and shaped by grief, responsibility, culture, and love.

Where possible, organisations should be guided by the language individuals use to describe themselves and reflect that language respectfully and appropriately.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Perspectives

For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, wellbeing is rooted in family, kinship, cultural practice, and Country. This holistic model—Social and Emotional Wellbeing (SEWB)—recognises the impact of colonisation, racism, and intergenerational trauma. SEWB reflects the interconnectedness of the individual and the collective, encompassing Country, Spirit, Body, Mind, Family and Kinship, Community and Culture.[1]

Language in this context should be:

  • Grounded in cultural identity and self-determination
  • Reflective of healing journeys, not just clinical recovery
  • Flexible and negotiated, especially where terms like “peer” or “consumer” may not resonate
  • Aligned with relational practices such as yarning, mentorship, and reciprocity

Workers may identify through their cultural roles or community connections rather than formal titles. As the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Lived Experience-led Peer Workforce Guide (2024) highlights, peer work must centre community-led knowledge, relationships, and ways of knowing. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s understanding and use of terminology varies between different cultural groups and region to region.

Lived and Living Experience in the Alcohol and Other Drug Context

In the alcohol and other drug sector, terminology varies to reflect the unique, diverse, and often ongoing nature of people’s experiences. The term “Lived and Living Experience” (LLE) refers to life-changing or defining experiences with alcohol and/or other drugs through personal use, or as a family member/loved one. LLE acknowledges both past and current experiences and recognises that people may have different goals relating to substance use, including continued use, harm reduction, and abstinence.

Individuals with LLE may work in designated roles (such as peer or LLE workers), where they intentionally draw on their experience, or in non-designated roles, where they may choose to not disclose their experience. Either way, the sharing of experience needs to be purposeful in their support of the service user and considerate of appropriate boundaries.

In Western Australia, the alcohol and other drug community has long been embedded in the sector, contributing to harm reduction, peer support, and systems advocacy. As highlighted in WANADA’s 2024 Understanding alcohol and other drug lived and living experience leadership report, the alcohol and other drug LLE workforce brings diverse perspectives shaped by personal, community, and structural experiences including current or past substance use, criminalisation, stigma, and social disadvantage.

Language in this context, must reflect diversity and avoid stigmatising, clinical, or deficit-based terms. The report emphasises that LLE identity is not static, and individuals may engage with their experience differently over time.

While terms like “people who use drugs” are preferred over stigmatising labels such as “addicts,” not all individuals in the alcohol and other drug LLE community accept or use the term “LLE” or “peer.” Instead, role titles and language should be flexible and negotiated to reflect each person’s preference and contribution.

“Providing individuals with the choice to adopt or decline LLE (or other related labels) in their role titles, as well as negotiating titles to reflect duties rather than LLE status, can be more empowering.” [2]

Ultimately, language in the alcohol and other drug LLE workforce should be person-led, grounded in harm reduction and self-determination, and informed by the Western Australian sector’s long history of lived and living experience and peer contributions, and community-led action.

Recommended Reading and Resources

To learn more about alcohol and other drug-specific language and approaches, the following resources provide practical guidance and workforce-aligned terminology:

Strengths-Based Language

Language used across service systems reflects different worldviews, frameworks, and priorities. In many health and support settings, deficit-based language—which emphasises problems, symptoms, or limitations—has historically shaped practice, particularly within clinical and medical models. [3] The Lived Experience (Peer) Workforces advocates for strengths-based, trauma-informed, and person-led language.

“Recovery” is commonly used in mental health and alcohol and other drug settings:

  • In mental health services, the concept of recovery is commonly used and embedded in policy and practice. For some, it represents personal growth and a reclaiming of life. For others, the term may feel limiting, suggesting a need to return to a previous state rather than recognising non-linear, evolving experiences of distress and healing.
  • In the alcohol and other drug sector, a diversity of approaches coexists, including harm reduction, abstinence-based treatment, and therapeutic programs. Language in this context often reflects people’s self-defined goals, and terms such as healing, reducing harm, or changing relationship with substances may be more resonant than recovery.[2]
  • Suicide prevention lived experience prioritises healing over recovery, acknowledging grief, meaning-making, and cultural connection.
  • For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, healing is collective, ongoing, and tied to culture, kinship, and Country, rather than individual clinical recovery.

In adopting strengths-based language:

✔Understand that recovery, healing, wellbeing, and harm reduction reflect different cultural and personal perspectives

✔Use language that is flexible and responsive to the terms people use to describe their own experiences

✔Aim for person-led, inclusive, and strengths-based communication across all contexts

Person First vs Identity First Language

Person first language (e.g., “a person with a disability”) and identity first language (e.g., “a disabled person”) are both used within Australia. Generally, organisations use person first language to emphasise the humanity of the people they work with. This has shifted in some spaces more recently as some consumer and advocacy groups note they cannot extricate themselves from their experiences and wear their identity first language with pride. It is important for organisations to be led by the people they are working with on an individual level.

Reclaimed Language

Many marginalised communities have appropriated or reclaimed words that have previously been used disparagingly, and this is true for parts of the Lived Experience community. For example, those who are involved in the Mad Pride movement; however, unless your organisation is Lived Experience (Peer) led and run, it is appropriate to avoid the use of reclaimed language.

Alternative Language Guide

The language we use when talking to people accessing services can contribute to, or reduce stigma of mental health, and alcohol and other drugs. Strength-based language can establish a sense of self-determination and empowerment that assists people along their recovery journey.

By emphasising their humanity, recovery-oriented language also assists all staff to treat the people they work alongside with unconditional positive regard.

InappropriateMore appropriate
Assume how a person wishes to be addressedAsk which terms they prefer to use. If they are unsure, mirror the language they use where appropriate
PatientConsumer / Client / Participant / Attendee / Resident / Service User
Johanna is mentally illJohanna is living with a mental health condition/challenge
Julie is a schizophrenicJulie experiences hearing voices or experiences schizophrenia
Victor is a borderlineVictor has a lived experience of trauma
Thien is anorexicThien has shared their experience of an eating disorder
Jamal was a victim of domestic violenceJamal experienced domestic violence
Fawzia is manipulativeFawzia is trying to get their needs met
Justin is non-compliant with treatmentJustin is choosing not to take medication
Amena lacks insightAmena struggles to understand other perspectives
Max doesn’t know they’re sickMax disagrees with the clinician
D’Arcy is an addictD’Arcy experiences a drug dependence
Melinda is low functioningMelinda requires some assistance with…
Phillip is volatilePhillip can [describe action] when he feels invalidated and unheard
Sage committed suicideSage died by suicide

The table above was modified by the Lived Experience members working on this site based on the 2019 MHCC recovery orientated language guide which also explores alternative language in more detail.

Guidelines for Image Use

While language is important, the images we use in our communications are also important. The Mindframe guidelines for image use include considering style and accessibility; modelling hope; considering context; appropriate permissions; and diversity.

References