Lived Experience as Authority: Redefining Women’s Mental Health in Survivorship
Tracks
Tamborine Gallery
| Tuesday, September 1, 2026 |
| 1:25 PM - 1:45 PM |
Overview
Shabnam Gujadhur, Gold Coast University Hospital
Three Key Learnings
1. Lived experience is a form of expertise that should inform clinical care, service design, and policy — not just be included as narrative or storytelling.
2. Women’s psychological distress in survivorship is often complex and context-driven, and requires a shift from pathologising symptoms to understanding lived realities.
3. Meaningful integration of lived experience into healthcare requires moving beyond tokenistic inclusion towards genuine partnership, co-design, and shared decision-making.
Speaker
Dr Shabnam Gujadhur
Doctor
Gold Coast University Hospital
Lived Experience as Authority: Redefining Women’s Mental Health in Survivorship
Abstract
Lived experience is often invited into healthcare conversations — but rarely given the authority to shape them.
This presentation explores the role of lived experience as a form of expertise in women’s mental health, particularly within cancer survivorship. Drawing on my dual perspective as both a medical doctor and a patient, I reflect on navigating ovarian cancer, a subsequent neuroendocrine tumour diagnosis, and the ongoing psychological realities of survivorship, including fertility challenges, identity shifts, and uncertainty.
While clinical care often focuses on diagnosis and treatment, the lived experience reveals a different narrative — one where psychological distress is complex, cumulative, and frequently unseen. Too often, these experiences are acknowledged at the level of storytelling but excluded from decision-making, service design, and policy.
This session will examine the gap between being heard and having influence. It will explore how lived experience is sometimes tokenised, and what is required to move towards genuine co-design and power-sharing within healthcare systems.
Through personal narrative and clinical insight, I will highlight how integrating lived experience meaningfully can reshape our understanding of distress, improve patient-centred care, and inform more responsive mental health models for women across the lifespan.
Practical reflections will be offered for clinicians, services, and policymakers on how to move beyond performative inclusion towards authentic partnership — ensuring that women’s voices are not only present, but impactful.
By reframing lived experience as authority, this presentation aims to challenge existing hierarchies in healthcare and advocate for systems that are designed with women, not just for them.
This presentation explores the role of lived experience as a form of expertise in women’s mental health, particularly within cancer survivorship. Drawing on my dual perspective as both a medical doctor and a patient, I reflect on navigating ovarian cancer, a subsequent neuroendocrine tumour diagnosis, and the ongoing psychological realities of survivorship, including fertility challenges, identity shifts, and uncertainty.
While clinical care often focuses on diagnosis and treatment, the lived experience reveals a different narrative — one where psychological distress is complex, cumulative, and frequently unseen. Too often, these experiences are acknowledged at the level of storytelling but excluded from decision-making, service design, and policy.
This session will examine the gap between being heard and having influence. It will explore how lived experience is sometimes tokenised, and what is required to move towards genuine co-design and power-sharing within healthcare systems.
Through personal narrative and clinical insight, I will highlight how integrating lived experience meaningfully can reshape our understanding of distress, improve patient-centred care, and inform more responsive mental health models for women across the lifespan.
Practical reflections will be offered for clinicians, services, and policymakers on how to move beyond performative inclusion towards authentic partnership — ensuring that women’s voices are not only present, but impactful.
By reframing lived experience as authority, this presentation aims to challenge existing hierarchies in healthcare and advocate for systems that are designed with women, not just for them.
Biography
Dr Shabnam Gujadhur is a medical doctor based on the Gold Coast, Australia. In 2022, shortly after starting her career, she was diagnosed with early-stage ovarian cancer, followed by a neuroendocrine tumour diagnosis in 2024. Now in survivorship, she brings a unique dual perspective as both clinician and patient. Shabnam is a passionate advocate for women’s health and cancer survivorship, using her lived experience to highlight gaps in psychological care and the often-unseen challenges women face beyond diagnosis.
