A New Zealander by birth, Chris has been involved in local, regional, national and international peer support and advocacy initiatives for 25 years and in mental health sector planning and politics from a service user perspective. Other roles have included clinical and management roles in mental health services (before being promoted to certified service-user status), leadership within NZ’s award-winning anti-discrimination campaign, research for the NZ Mental Health Commission, and involvement in the development of the NZ national mental health strategic plan and workforce development strategy.
Chris was a member of the New Zealand delegation to the United Nations for the development of the Convention for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; has served on the board of the World Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry and has played a key role in the development of several peer-run crisis alternatives. Chris Hansen is a Co-Director of Intentional Peer Support and has been co-teaching and developing Intentional Peer Support in the United States and in other countries with Co-Directors Shery Mead and now Lisa Archibald for the past seventeen years.
