Video Spotlight: Mel, CAPITAL Peer, on being living proof that lived experience matters
We know that peer support is more than a service. It provides connection, hope, and understanding. Mel, our CAPITAL peer support worker who worked at Meadowfield Hospital, has seen first hand how this work transforms lives.
CAPITAL continues as an organisation where lived experience is valued. However, the dedicated peer support roles within the hospital, including Mel’s, have now been defunded. The absence of these roles is already being felt by patients, staff and the peers who poured their hearts into this work.
For Mel, CAPITAL was the first place where her history was not something to hide, but something that helped others. She says:
“I enjoyed being able to be myself… the interesting mental health history that I’d had was an asset and it’s never been that before.”
On the ward, Mel offered time, empathy and understanding in ways that clinical training alone can’t. Her lived experience helped patients feel seen, heard and less alone.
“Lived experience allows patients to identify with the people offering peer support… those things that affected you hugely in the past have a real tangible value to other people now.”
The benefits extended far beyond patients. NHS staff relied on peer workers as steady and compassionate presences who eased the pressure on a demanding environment. For peer workers themselves, the role brought purpose, confidence and wellbeing. It turned personal challenges into meaningful support.
That is why the end of peer support in the hospital has been so devastating. Mel describes how wide the impact will be:
“The impact of losing the peer support service will be felt on three fronts… patients will be lacking someone they can have a quiet chat with… staff will be missing friendly support… and for peer workers themselves, it will leave a big hole in their lives.”
By sharing her own experiences, she not only helps others but also finds healing in her work. Writing poetry has been one way she copes with the emotional demands of her role and reflects on the experiences of those she supports. Her poems, such as ‘Work’ and ‘Hidden’, show how she transforms lived experience into a source of hope for patients:
“I’m living proof of recovery and what can be achieved.”
Mel’s story shows what CAPITAL peer support brought into the wards. Genuine connection and the reassurance of shared experience and a sense of hope that cannot be replaced by any other role. Although the service has ended for now, its impact lives on in the patients she supported and in the belief that lived experience truly transforms lives.
We will keep fighting for our peers and for lived experience to be at the heart of services.
“We’re living proof that meaningful recovery is possible.”
Mel CAPITAL Peer
Mel’s Poems on Peer Support
‘Work’
I’ve worked this job for seven years.
It’s the best I’ve ever done.
A mental health ward, one of the peers, but now the job has gone.
It has been given me immense joy to be in Capital’s employ.
I’m using lived experience to further patient relevance.
I’m living proof of recovery and what can be achieved.
I foster self-discovery, how not to be deceived.
It has given me immense joy to be in Capital’s employ.
I’m using lived experience to smooth the path ahead.
My own trauma was an ordeal, a dark period I enjoyed, an experience I may conceal now encourages reward.
It has given me immense joy to be in Capital’s employ.
I’m using lived experience to help the peers to grow.‘Hidden’
What you’re happy to reveal can be brave or quite reserved.
You may be keen to share life’s path, whether winding, straight or curved.
What you’ve chosen to conceal, and whatever that may be, is what you hide away
from folk, whether friends or family.
The choice is yours and may change with time.
We do as we are bidden.
A story shared by those we know, or a tale remaining hidden.‘My work’
I qualified from what I’ve lived, the traumas through the years.
I grasped the worst, till fit to burst, to help others through their fears.
A compact group, we’ve time to talk.
They rightly call us peers.
We’ve lived on wards, locked from the hordes, worried, scared in tears.
Angry too, deprived of world, and facing scary thoughts, wild images, racing mind
and irrational fears.
We gently probe in calm exchange and interest in the peer.
Refocus thoughts, unwind the brain, be positive, bring cheer.Mel CAPITAL Peer