Freweini Tewelde: A Journey of Lived Experience and Peer Support
At our Trust, our peer support workers and lived experience practitioners help shape and deliver high-quality mental health services. With over 60 individuals across all our services, they use their personal experiences of mental health challenges and recovery to support patients, families, carers, and colleagues.
Collaborating closely with clinical teams, crisis cafés, the Recovery College, and voluntary sector partners, they help to ensure that care is compassionate, person-centred, and informed by lived experience.
In this Q&A, we speak with Freweini, one of our lived experience practitioners, to explore the value of lived experience in mental health services and how her role contributes to recovery and well-being for both individuals and the wider community.
The role of a peer support worker in mental health services
As a peer support worker and lived experience practitioner, Freweini's role is grounded in connection, and shared experience. She draws on her own journey through mental health challenges and recovery to support others—not by giving advice or fixing problems, but by listening without judgment and offering hope.
“For me, this role is about turning past pain into purpose. It’s about showing people they’re not alone and that recovery, whatever that looks like for them is possible. It’s a commitment to holding space for others the way I wish someone had for me or the way someone once did.”
Inspirations
The support Freweini received during her struggles had a big impact on her and sparked her passion for helping others.
“When I was unwell, I did not have peer support, just a clinician observing me. I wanted someone to encourage me, chat, have coffee, just a normal human connection to distract me from what I was going through. Through my own experience, I realised that peer support was what I needed, and that’s what inspired my passion.
“My lived experience shapes how I support others in a powerful and personal way.”
The value of lived experience
Freweini believes that having people with lived experience in mental health services is vital. They offer a first-hand understanding of the recovery journey, the challenges, and the small things that can make a big difference.
“It’s inspiring for clinical staff to work alongside someone who has overcome their own crisis—a powerful reminder that recovery is possible, and that people can rebuild their lives, no matter how difficult their journey has been.”
Meaningful moments
Freweini works in a complex mental health unit, supporting around 24 patients. She recalls how she supported one individual who struggled to express his thoughts and emotions: “To support him, I planned regular outings, including going to a café, to create a more relaxed environment. I also suggested visiting the local library, something he had never done before. While we were there, he found a book that caught his interest. As he read, he connected with parts about grief and loss and shared his experiences with grief.
That book helped him process his grief in a way he had not before. He thanked me, and it was a powerful reminder of how small, thoughtful interventions based on connection, curiosity, and respect can create real moments of healing."
For more information on our Lived Experience Network click here.
