Max Simensen

Consumer Partnerships Officer

SESLHD Mental Health Service

"My background is in mental health peer work, which is utilising lived experience and experience through services to support people. I oversee and support our peer workforce, our consumer advisory group and other consumer representatives. I also monitor how we’re engaging consumers, how we’re collaborating and how we’re co-designing. My role is to try to amplify any message they want to deliver. So to be a megaphone for what they want.

I’ve always really enjoyed bigger picture conversations. I like frontline work, but I tend to be a very impatient person so it helps me seeing the cogs that work, to understand change and then be able to affect it. Everyone here, including the executive level, is very supportive of the consumer voice and consumer input.

What matters to me is making sure that anyone who comes into contact with our service actually leaves better than when they entered.  And they gain some kind of skill or experience that they can take with them beyond our service."