Earlier this month, I had the privilege of attending my first ACPA (American Cleft Palate Craniofacial Association) conference (annual meeting), held in Denver, Colorado.
It was a privilege to be invited to speak on a lived experience panel, following on from the paper “A Keynote Address” published in late 2023. The panel consisted of colleagues from the US, Canada, UK, Europe (and me from NZ), all of whom are doing important work with the cleft/visible difference community, while also living with cleft/visible difference themselves. I am very grateful for the opportunity to have been able to attend in person, meet these fantastic new colleagues whom I now consider to be friends.
We all presented on various aspects of the importance of working together in partnership and recognising the important contributions that those with lived experience have to offer to health and research teams. Thanks to the ACPA, the recording from our panel has been made freely and publicly available around the world, and you can watch it below. My presentation within the panel “Building bridges with a handful of hats”, focusses on what it is like to have both expertise by training, and expertise by experience. My presentation starts around the 26 minute mark, however each of these panellists delivers a powerful talk in their own right, so I would definitely encourage taking the time to watch the panel in its entirety – your research/healthcare team will be more effective and compassionate when working with people with lived experience as a result.
Kenny Ardouin 
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