Where’s The Patient Voice Conference 2025 (Vancouver, Canada)Care Pathway Post-Event Reflection:
Attending the Where’s The Patient Voice Conference (WTPV) Canada 2025 has been an affirming experiences of my professional journey this year. This global gathering brought together leaders, practitioners, researchers, and, crucially, people with lived experience. It felt like a return to the heart of why I do this work. Every conversation, session, and story echoed a simple truth: patient and carer voices must remain central to how we educate, train, and transform health and social care systems.
I was also honoured to present at the conference, sharing a project that sits at the core of my research and passion:
Supporting Higher Education Institution (HEI) Academics: The Strategic Role of Service User and Carer Involvement (SUCI) in Teaching and Learning
This project is being co-developed with colleagues, with a view to position SUCI as a strategic and structural driver within higher education. Presenting to an international audience opened up powerful and meaningful dialogue and affirmation around the need for lived experience-led education.
Key Reflections from WTPV 2025
1. A global movement is accelerating. It was inspiring to see how countries across the world are converging on the same principle: meaningful involvement of service users and carers is essential for building safe, equitable, and person-centred care systems.
2. Collaboration fuels change. The conference created space for rich exchanges and new ideas, shared challenges but at the same time, opportunities for joint research and innovation. It reaffirmed that the work we are doing at Higher Education Institutions in training future health and social care professionals is both timely and globally relevant.
3. Lived experience leadership is reshaping education. Hearing directly from service users and carers reinforced why their voices must shape teaching, assessment, curricula, and the future workforce.
Looking Ahead
One of the most exciting outcomes of WTPV2025 is the international relationships that have begun to form. I am now looking forward to nurturing these global connections, exploring potential partnerships, and aligning my work at with emerging international best practice in lived-experience-led education and research.
These connections will support an expanding portfolio of work in:
* Embedding lived experience across programmes
* Building a culture of person-centred education
* Strengthening SUCI research, scholarship, and impact
* Designing innovative interdisciplinary teaching and learning approaches
Final Thoughts
WTPV2025 was a catalyst. A reminder that meaningful transformation happens when academics, practitioners, and people with lived experience collaborate with authenticity and purpose.
I return energised, inspired, and deeply committed to driving this work forward - locally, nationally, and now internationally!
By
Bimpe Kuti-Matekenya.
