Minister Butler highlights value of Lived Experience in Irish health policy development and service improvement at European Patient Forum
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Minister for Mental Health, Mary Butler TD is today representing Ireland at the Patient Engagement Open Forum (PEOF) in Seville, Spain, a high-level European policy event focused on patient involvement in healthcare.
Minister Butler will highlight Ireland’s achievements to date in advancing patient and public engagement in both policy development and service delivery, with a particular emphasis on mental health.
Internationally, health services are shifting beyond traditional consultation models towards co-production, where patients play an active role in shaping policies and services from initial design and development through to implementation and evaluation. This approach depends on meaningful participation, constructive collaboration, and a shared commitment to working within robust governance frameworks.
Speaking in Seville at the conference, Minister Butler said:
“Ireland is putting people’s real-life experiences at the centre of our mental health policy and service reform. Including and acting of the voice of people with lived and living experience is a central principle in our national mental health policy Sharing the Vision, is core to the principles of the new Mental Health Act 2026, and was embedded in the development of our new suicide and self-harm reduction strategy ‘Connecting for Life 2026-2035’ which was launched last week.
Embedding lived experience in policy development and service design focuses on putting people first, working together, supporting recovery, understanding the effects of trauma, respecting human rights, and promoting learning and education.
The national committee responsible for overseeing the development of Sharing the Vision includes lived experience membership and is supported in its work by a Lived Experience Reference Group which provides its views on the progress of implementation. I met with the Reference Group in Government Buildings last week to hear their perspectives on implementation directly. In addition, the new suicide reduction and self-harm strategy was hugely strengthened by the input of a separate Lived Experience Group which ensured the new policy prioritised crisis supports and suicide bereavement supports in particular.”
The European Patients' Forum (EPF) is co-hosting the Patient Engagement Open Forum (PEOF) with Patient Focused Medicines Development (PFMD) and European Patients' Academy on Therapeutic Innovation (EUPATI) in Seville from 2-4 June 2026.
The Forum is a global gathering bringing together a network of organisations to shape the future of Patient Engagement across clinical research and innovation, in value-driven policies, and service design and improvement. The community meets to collaborate, foster innovation, and co-create solutions to embed patient engagement and lived experience expertise in health services.
The event also marks the publication of the ‘EPF Barometer on the involvement of patient organisations in health policy at national level’, an initiative to address the lack of transparency regarding whether and how patient organisations are involved in health policymaking at national level.
The initiative aims to:
- Map the level of patient involvement in the development, implementation and evaluation of health policies in EU Member States.
- Identify good practices in patient involvement in health policy and the mechanisms and structures in place to facilitate the involvement of patient organisations in policy-making processes.
- Examine the barriers and challenges that patient organisations face in participating effectively in health policy-making.
Minister Butler is representing Ireland at the launch of the barometer by setting out Ireland’s track record of meaningful inclusion of the voice of lived and living experience in Irish health policy-making and service improvement programmes.
Speaking in Seville at the conference, Minister Butler said:
“As Ireland prepares to assume the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, I am pleased to promote the opportunity to advance a more inclusive, person-centred approach to health policy across Europe based on our experience in Ireland.
A central priority for us will be to ensure that patient involvement and lived experience participation are embedded at the heart of how health services are designed, delivered and evaluated. This reflects a clear and growing consensus, both in Ireland and across Europe, that lived and living experience must be recognised not simply as a perspective, but as a form of expertise in its own right.”
Minister Butler will join a panel discussion with Ministries and Government officials with responsibility for mental health from Spain, Cyprus, Slovenia, Belgium and Finland and patient engagement organisations from Spain and Czechia.
Minister Butler concluded:
“We have made a lot of progress in mental health in Ireland and are leading the way in Europe and I am very encouraged by the interest and feedback from other EU Member States in the reform and improvement agenda we are pursuing."
ENDS