‘Trust That Inner Advocate’: Neil Fraser on Owning Your Lived Experience

For Neil Fraser, becoming a lived experience advocate wasn’t just about sharing his story—it was about believing it mattered.

“Learning to recognise the validity of my experience and trust that inner advocate that always has a couple of words to say—it’s been a journey,” Neil said.

As a peer worker, Neil’s lived experience spans mental health, suicide prevention, and alcohol and other drug support.

His advocacy has been about personal growth and confronting the systemic barriers that people face when seeking support.

"I quite often found I was ushered between doors and told 'go to door A for problem A, and once you fix that, come back to door B',” he said.

“I found that really restrictive. I knew what my priority was; I just needed to convince health services that it was the priority too."

For Neil, this fragmentation isn’t just inefficient—it can be harmful. He said people aren’t neat boxes of separate issues; they’re complex, with overlapping needs that can’t be compartmentalised.

"Now that these areas are starting to come together—mental health, suicide prevention, drug and alcohol—I think that's really exciting,” he said.

“Hopefully, this space will continue to grow and focus more on the individual rather than just popping people in a box and expecting them to conform."

Neil knows there’s power in holding space for both expertise and experience. It's not about competing with clinical knowledge but complementing it with the reality of what it means to live through the issues we aim to address.

"Make sure you deeply understand what the consumer's saying to you,” he said.

“Don't focus on the next section of the form you must complete. Hold that space, sit with the silence, and use their language to understand what they're trying to tell you."

Neil Fraser shared his story with SafeSide Prevention in light of the Lived Experience Summit being hosted in Brisbane this week.