A Lived Experience Perspective on Digital Regulatory Practices

The paper reflects on a Wellcome-funded project led by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in collaboration with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). Initiated in 2023, the project aimed at developing guidance and regulatory frameworks for digital mental health technologies (DMHTs), emphasising meaningful lived experience involvement throughout the process to ensure accessibility, inclusivity, and accountability. It details methods of engagement, key insights on best practices for lived experience involvement, challenges such as overcoming technical jargon and provides recommendations for broader adoption of lived experience integration, improved public awareness, cross-sector collaboration, and equitable digital futures in mental health regulation and innovation. The paper offers a hybrid narrative approach in which the details of the project are presented and are followed by the lived experience insights of the contributing authors. This highlights the collaborative nature of the project itself and the outputs but gives space for the considered reflections of what it felt like to be part of this initiative. The paper considers recommendations for how lived experience should be incorporated into similar projects in future. The paper articulates the benefit of lived experience for projects that have an impact on the way in which DMHTs are regulated. In this instance the outputs, informed by lived experience, help ensure that DMHTs are safe and effective and will be reflected in what technologies are integrated into mental health nursing practice. It is also important to note that DMHTs are often accessed outside of mental health service settings, and so practitioner awareness of their risks and benefits should be encouraged.