Oliver started work in mental health as a lived experience worker alongside his music studies at The University of Birmingham. He has worked across a wide range of fields including NHS peer support provision, community recovery initiatives, the youth justice sector, sexual violence prevention, and more. They enjoy teaching and have delivered on courses at the University of Northampton and the University of Derby, as well as for a variety of NHS Trusts and secondary schools across the UK.
Oliver also has a keen interest in equality and social justice, especially in relation to mental health. He has worked as the Equity and Inclusion lead for the international mental health recovery charity, ImROC, and undertaken studies in Equality and Human Rights law, as well as equitable approaches to teaching. Oliver would like to apply this to their research and hopes to develop research projects around decolonising mental health and redeveloping more inclusive models of working.
Their notable achievements include:
- Training over 250 peer support workers and peer supervisors, UK-wide.
- Publishing a book chapter on children and young people’s peer support, aged 24.
- Sitting on a steering group to found a national cooperative for the children and young people’s lived experience workforce (current role).
- Performing in the opening ceremony of the 2022 Commonwealth Games.