Designing a Library of Lived Experience for Mental Health: integrated realist synthesis and experience-based co-design study in UK mental health services.

Objective: Living Library events involve people being trained as living 'Books', who then discuss aspects of their personal experiences in direct conversation with attendees, referred to as 'Readers'. This study sought to generate a realist programme theory and a theory-informed implementation guide for a Library of Lived Experience for Mental Health (LoLEM).

Design: Integrated realist synthesis and experience-based co-design.

Designing a library of lived experience for mental health (LoLEM): protocol for integrating a realist synthesis and experience based codesign approach.

Introduction: People with lived expertise in managing mental health challenges can be an important source of knowledge and support for other people facing similar challenges, and for carers to learn how best to help. However, opportunities for sharing lived expertise are limited. Living libraries support people with lived expertise to be 'living books', sharing their experiences in dialogue with 'readers' who can ask questions.