Who Are the Experts? Event: Gloria Gomes’ Reflections

On the 1st of September 2026, we held Who Are the Experts? The Changing Landscape of Mental Health in the UK, a two-part event in Oxford. In the afternoon, a workshop brought together researchers, professors and members of the NeurOx Young People’s Advisory Group (YPAG) to explore what “expertise” means in mental health. In the evening, a public panel at Oxford Town Hall, chaired by Professor Ilina Singh, featured Professor Sir Simon Wessely, Dr David Crepaz-Keay, Dr Lucy Foulkes and the YPAG. Together they discussed what kinds of expertise we should trust to identify, support and treat mental health needs, and how clinical expertise, lived experience and emerging technologies are shaping the future of mental health research, policy and practice. The event was funded by the Wellcome Trust under the ANTITHESES project.

We asked one of our YPAG members who attended for her thoughts. Here are Gloria Gomes’s reflections on the day.

What was the purpose of this event?

The event was held to look into who the experts in mental health are and the value of lived experience as a form of expertise.

It explored the idea that different experiences can lead to different forms of knowledge, and how that knowledge could add to what we already know about how mental health patients are treated and diagnosed.

The panel also discussed self-diagnosis: its credibility, why it happens, and how to respond to it.

What happened at the workshop?

Groups of researchers, professors and YPAG members explored what their “expertise” might be and what that word really means.

We mind-mapped our initial thoughts and then discussed what we had written for each task, which meant we got to hear everyone’s ideas on the topic. This led to lively and much-sought-after discussions about what each of us views as true expertise. Questions such as “Is there such a thing as a real expert, or does our inability to learn ‘everything’ stop us from reaching that point?” arose, as well as what we each classed as a beneficial experience and what might actually take us further away from being an expert.

What was said at the panel?

Later, a panel took place with Dr Lucy Foulkes, Professor Sir Simon Wessely and Dr David Crepaz-Keay, who gave their thoughts from the perspective of both research and lived experience.

Dr Lucy Foulkes spoke about self-diagnosis and how personal experience may give someone the insight to diagnose themselves accurately. However, a second step, such as seeing a psychiatrist, may be needed to make sure that mental health diagnoses aren’t abused and therefore diluted.

Can experts ever fully understand a diagnosis?

Something that interested me was a discussion I had with my table about how there will always be a gap in the experts’ knowledge, due to the innate inability to fully grasp certain characteristics of a diagnosis, as they haven’t experienced it themselves, as well as some characteristics being particularly hard to verbalise or express.

That said, expertise doesn’t come solely from experience either. Many mental health conditions cause symptoms that mean certain moments can be blurred or lost when speaking to a psychiatrist, so they get missed by both people.

As it was put at my table:

“A surgeon may be skilled at removing tonsils, but learning that it’s not the best solution anymore requires more than experience, it requires active learning.”

Living through something may give insight into things that doctors can’t grasp, but having an objective set of eyes to identify common symptoms and characteristics without bias is vital to learning and moving forward in the world of mental health.

That is why working side by side and valuing both forms of expertise is important for developing new forms of treatment and helping a larger number of people more effectively.

Is stigma going backwards?

Another thing that piqued my interest was how stigma surrounding mental health has changed over time, and how we may currently be experiencing regression rather than improvement because of things like social media and “over-diagnosing”. This has created a new group of people who are frustrated by the accommodations others may be getting when they feel they aren’t needed.

More people are being diagnosed with mental health conditions now than ever before. There are several possible reasons for this, including more awareness and laws that protect people, so more of them seek help. However, it has also made a growing number of people more wary of, and less sensitive towards, those who have been diagnosed, as they think diagnoses have lost their meaning and value.

I believe this has caused people to go backwards in their thinking, leading to more people hiding their issues rather than getting help. A solution is still uncertain, but I think that if things continue as they are, more people will stay quiet to avoid being seen as “overdramatic”. That being said, I could be wrong, as there are many reasons to think people will continue to seek support, such as ongoing mental health campaigns advocating for people’s safety and rights.