Table 1 Authors’ positionality statements

Sophie Soklaridis

I am the daughter of Greek parents who immigrated to Canada. I grew up in Lourdes, Newfoundland, and Scarborough, Ontario. I hold assumptions and perspectives that are shaped by how I see/experience the world and how the world sees/experiences me. I work in an academic medical institution and recognise that it is a privileged site of knowledge production that has historically marginalised paradigms outside of the traditional biomedical model. I strongly believe in the importance of collaborating with lived-experience experts in research. My intent is to use my positional power to amplify their voices as experts who have invaluable knowledge to contribute to the research process

Holly Harris

I acknowledge the intersectional privilege/oppression that I experience on account of my identity. I am a white, middle-class, cisgender female with master’s-level education born and raised on stolen land. I identify as someone who is neurodivergent and a consumer/survivor of the psychiatric system. I am employed by a tertiary mental healthcare facility as a research coordinator and have been involved in RCs as a peer support specialist, peer facilitator, and research coordinator for six years. I leverage my lived experiences as a source of strength, resilience, and expertise to highlight the voices of those who have been historically silenced in the psychiatric system and academia. I am currently pursuing a doctoral degree in gender, feminist, and women’s studies focused on the integration of lived experience perspectives in psychiatric governance structures. I acknowledge that my lived, academic, and professional experiences influence the value I place on specific practices, ideas, places, and symbols, and on my interpretation of the data

Rowen Shier

I am a white settler, cisgender woman. I grew up in a low-income family and identify as someone with lived experience. I hold a master’s degree in social sciences focused on the intersection of policy and power relations. I recognise that my lens for engaging with this research process has been shaped by my various intersectional privileges and oppression. As a researcher, I am dedicated to anti-oppressive and community-engaged practices. I seek to make space for those who are commonly excluded from knowledge creation towards the goal of advancing social justice. Personally and professionally, I am committed to working in solidarity with people and communities to dismantle and challenge systems of oppression

Jordana Rovet

I recognize that my understanding of this subject is influenced by multiple intersecting aspects of my identity, including my lived and academic expertise. I am a white settler, middle-class, cisgender female with a master’s degree in social work. I have spent the last 10 years working in the area of mental health and substance use, supporting projects led by people with lived experience. I am currently employed by a large mental healthcare hospital as a coordinator, where I am directly involved in the design, implementation and evaluation of an RC. My positionality informs the lens I bring to the data and the ways in which I interpret the experiences of others

Georgia Black

I am a white, cisgender female who immigrated to Canada from Scotland in 2019. I have an undergraduate degree in psychology and have worked with populations that experience elevated rates of health inequity. While I am not involved in the design or implementation of RCs, I am involved in related research and have been part of the current project from its initiation. My professional background is underpinned by my personal experience of accessing and navigating mental health services. I acknowledge how both my insider and outsider status have shaped my approach to this research, including my perception of our team values; the writing I contributed to this paper; and my interpretation of what should be included during editing

Gail Bellissimo

I identify as a white middle-class, cisgender female. I acknowledge my social location and associated privileges, as well as experiences of stigma. I have spent eight years engaging in research in the areas of chronic health, mental health, patient-oriented research, and service user education. I have also been involved in the co-design of an RC for a large mental health care hospital. I seek opportunities to create inclusive and safe spaces by removing barriers to allow for capacity building, mentorship, education, and peer support for the voices that are denied access due to discrimination and biases

Sam Gruszecki

I identify as a white cis-gendered middle-aged male. I work as a coordinator for an RC and am an employee of the organisation that employs many of the people involved with this paper. This is part of my work. I also had collegial and community-based experience with most of these people before this work began. Some of my lived experience includes navigating anti-Semitism, neurodivergence, multiple diagnoses, and experiences with poverty, as well as being the child of an immigrant, navigating services, and lacking post-secondary education. I have been involved in RC work, funded through major hospitals, as a peer support specialist, lead peer and coordinator since 2014. My experiences in research are relatively limited and I continue to learn along the way

Elizabeth Lin

I am a non-white, middle-class female with a doctoral degree and have dealt with barriers for non-whites in more than one country. I have been employed by a tertiary mental healthcare facility as a research scientist for over 30 years and have an extensive track record in traditional health services research using quantitative and large survey methods. I am new to RC research, and this is the first project about RCs that I have been involved in. My interactions with individuals who have been part of RCs have largely been with this team and involve creating our co-productive process, writing manuscripts arising from this project and attending administrative meetings where RC students, administrators, or facilitators may also be present. My role in this project included contributing specific expertise on conducting scoping reviews and editing manuscripts for scholarly journals. My perceptions are very much influenced by my upbringing and the cultural and social context that I grew up in and had to navigate to gain my education and my current occupation

Anna Di Giandomenico

This project is my first experience with conducting research related to RCs. I have conducted patient-partnered research with a pan-Canadian diabetes research organisation and am an author on an academic publication related to that work. I have been a student in RCs for five years, a member of an RC course and programming committee for three years, and recently became a founding member of an RC research committee. I have a bachelor of arts degree in psychology and early childhood educator certification. Leveraging my education and lived experiences as an RC student in this project has been a positive experience for me