Will Thorpe

Data Officer

Will Thorpe (he/him) is a lived experience researcher/practitioner living on sovereign Kaurna country.

Will loves, and has always loved, to take things apart; separating out the components of a bigger object to figure out how they fit together and what they do. This provoked (and still provokes) some alarm from the adults in his life. However, it also led him to a rewarding and varied career of understanding how different components of complex systems — be they technological, behavioural, or social —  fit together (or not) to produce their outcomes. Will approaches these problems collaboratively, working with people who are part of these systems to come to mutual understandings of how different elements of their context fit together; privileging the first-hand knowledge of Lived Experience working with/being within these systems to produce new tools, processes, or ways of understanding.

In a mental health context, he is particularly interested in ways co-design approaches can be integrated into the day-to-day operations of services, and the ways workers use and think about technology. This is additionally informed by his own Lived Experience, both of navigating distress and the mental health system, and as a peer worker.