Voices That Matter: Cocreating Better Integrated Care Systems Through Lived Expertise

We often talk about person-centered care, person-centered planning and whole-person health, yet one of the most powerful resources for improving integrated care systems is still too often underutilized: the expertise of people who have personally navigated those systems.

Integrated care brings together physical health, mental health and substance use services in an approach that addresses the whole person within a single, coordinated system rather than treating these needs separately. Across integrated care settings, individuals with lived experience bring knowledge that cannot be learned solely through professional training. Their insights are grounded in firsthand experience — what helped, what created barriers, what fostered trust, and what supported recovery and wellness.

When organizations create opportunities for professionals and people with lived experience to learn from one another, better outcomes become possible for everyone.

Lived Experience Is Expertise

Peer support specialists are increasingly recognized as important members of the integrated health care workforce, using their lived experience of recovery from mental health and substance use challenges to support, guide and encourage others. Research consistently demonstrates that peer support improves engagement, increases satisfaction with services, supports whole-health outcomes, and can reduce costly hospitalizations and inpatient stays (Mental Health America, 2019). According to Oscar Jiménez-Solomon, PhD, MPH, researcher at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, “Lived experience becomes lived expertise when individuals transform personal experiences into knowledge that can inform services, systems, policies and practice.”

More importantly, the value of lived expertise extends beyond designated peer roles. Jonathan Edwards, PhD, LCSW, ACSW, CPS, frames this shift as more than simply valuing personal stories. He emphasizes that lived expertise is “a nuanced, deeply internalized body of knowledge” and argues that when organizations “treat personal narratives as important evidence,” they can “move past the antiquated parameters of care and begin building a truly collaborative model.”

Bridging Behavioral Health and Physical Health

The movement toward integrated care addresses the important reality that health challenges rarely exist in isolation.  People living with mental health conditions often manage chronic physical health conditions, as well. Likewise, individuals with chronic physical illnesses frequently face emotional, psychological, trauma or substance use challenges (National Institute of Mental Health, 2024). As systems work to integrate care, lived experience becomes an essential bridge between traditionally separate services. People with lived expertise can identify barriers and coordination gaps that may not be visible within a single program, service or professional discipline.

As Edwards observes, the reason lived expertise is so critical to integrated care is that the person receiving services is often the only individual who experiences the entire continuum of care across systems. “Fragmented and siloed health care exists because systems are built around professional disciplines rather than human lives and dimensions of wellness. When mapping the constellation of care, the only individual who experiences the entire landscape is the person navigating through it. Their guidance is the structural glue required for true integrated health.”

Engaging people with lived expertise as partners in the design, implementation and evaluation of integrated care services helps organizations develop solutions that are responsive to real-world needs rather than organizational assumptions. Their perspectives strengthen cocreation efforts, leading to services that are more accessible, person-centered and effective in achieving integrated care outcomes.

This approach is reflected in peer-led models such as Whole Health Action Management (WHAM), which recognizes peer support as a foundation for helping individuals manage both physical and behavioral health conditions while pursuing whole-person wellness. By drawing on lived expertise, programs like WHAM demonstrate how peer support can strengthen integrated care and help people navigate the interconnected aspects of health and recovery.

Creating Systems With People, Not for People

Cocreation is more than gathering feedback. It means moving beyond consultation and toward meaningful and ongoing engagement of people who have experience navigating physical and behavioral health systems. Their perspectives help shape priorities, policies and systems change, bringing a real-world understanding of how care is experienced across settings. As Jiménez-Solomon noted, “People who are the recipients and beneficiaries of a program or system really should be part of the design. It just makes sense.”

Meaningful participation requires more than creating a seat at the table. Organizations must support authentic engagement, shared authority and accountability. Without these supports, efforts can unintentionally become tokenistic, seeking input without creating meaningful opportunities for influence. Cocreation is most effective when lived expertise is recognized not only as valuable feedback, but as a legitimate source of knowledge that informs decisions and drives innovation.

In short, cocreation helps organizations build systems that work better because they are informed by those who use them.

Strengthening the Workforce Through Partnership

As integrated care systems face workforce shortages and growing complexity, incorporating lived expertise is a practical strategy for strengthening services. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s 2026 National Model Standards for Peer Support Certification recognizes peer support workers as essential members of health care teams, who help organizations improve outcomes, support recovery and extend services beyond traditional clinical settings.

When peer support specialists and clinicians work together, they bring different but equally valuable perspectives that can help care teams better understand and respond to the needs of the people they serve. By creating opportunities for shared learning and shared problem-solving, organizations can build a workforce that is better equipped to address the interconnected physical, behavioral and social needs of the people they support.

Moving Forward Together

Advancing integrated care requires more than coordinating services. It requires partnering with the people in those services. When organizations move beyond consultation and embrace cocreation, they create systems that are more responsive, more effective, and better positioned to improve whole-person health outcomes. The voices of people with lived experience are not simply valuable additions to the conversation — they are essential to the success of integrated care.

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Daniella Labate Covelli is a leader in behavioral health and psychiatric rehabilitation with expertise in person-centered care, workforce development and systems transformation.

Shannon Higbee is a behavioral health leader with expertise in peer-run services, mental health system transformation, strategic leadership and sustainable service development, dedicated to advancing high-quality, accessible and person-centered care.

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Interview Attribution

Quotations from Oscar Jiménez-Solomon, PhD, MPH, and Jonathan Edwards, PhD, LCSW, ACSW, CPS, are drawn from interviews conducted for this article in June 2026.

References

Mental Health America. (2019). Peer support: Research and evidence base. https://www.mhanational.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Evidence-Peer-Support-May-2019.pdf 

National Council for Mental Wellbeing. (n.d.) Whole Health Action Management (WHAM). https://www.thenationalcouncil.org/service/whole-health-action-management/

National Institute of Mental Health. (2024). Understanding the link between chronic disease and depression (NIH Publication No. 24-MH-8015). https://www.nimh.nih.gov/sites/default/files/health/publications/chronic-illness-mental-health/understanding-link-between-chronic-disease-depression.pdf

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2026). National model standards for peer support certification (Publication No. PEP23-10-01-001). https://library.samhsa.gov/sites/default/files/pep23-10-01-001.pdf