Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Notes on contributors
- Preface and acknowledgements
- one Sociology and survivor research: an introduction
- two Mental health service users’ experiences and epistemological fallacy
- three Doing good carer-led research: reflecting on ‘Past Caring’ methodology
- four Theorising service user involvement from a researcher perspective
- five How does who we are shape the knowledge we produce? Doing collaborative research about personality disorders
- six Where do service users’ knowledges sit in relation to professional and academic understandings of knowledge?
- seven Recognition politics as a human rights perspective on service users’ experiences of involvement in mental health services
- eight Theorising a social model of ‘alcoholism’: service users who misbehave
- nine “Hard to reach”? Racialised groups and mental health service user involvement
- ten Individual narratives and collective knowledge: capturing lesbian, gay and bisexual service user experiences
- eleven Alternative futures for service user involvement in research
- twelve Brief reflections
- Appendix Details of the seminar series
- Index
nine - “Hard to reach”? Racialised groups and mental health service user involvement
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 February 2022
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Notes on contributors
- Preface and acknowledgements
- one Sociology and survivor research: an introduction
- two Mental health service users’ experiences and epistemological fallacy
- three Doing good carer-led research: reflecting on ‘Past Caring’ methodology
- four Theorising service user involvement from a researcher perspective
- five How does who we are shape the knowledge we produce? Doing collaborative research about personality disorders
- six Where do service users’ knowledges sit in relation to professional and academic understandings of knowledge?
- seven Recognition politics as a human rights perspective on service users’ experiences of involvement in mental health services
- eight Theorising a social model of ‘alcoholism’: service users who misbehave
- nine “Hard to reach”? Racialised groups and mental health service user involvement
- ten Individual narratives and collective knowledge: capturing lesbian, gay and bisexual service user experiences
- eleven Alternative futures for service user involvement in research
- twelve Brief reflections
- Appendix Details of the seminar series
- Index
Summary
Introduction
Engaging people who use mental health services in developing those services, a process generally known as ‘user involvement’, has developed over the years to become part of policy (DH, 1999, 2005; NIMHE, 2003). Involvement and participation initiatives came on the agenda of most mental health trusts. The National Institute for Mental Health in England (NIMHE) developed a programme and guidelines for user involvement Making a real difference (MARD), based on the recommendations from a report on strengthening user and carer involvement in NIMHE (HASCAS, 2005). MARD guidelines and tools for developing and evaluating involvement were expected to enable a systematic approach to user involvement and to fulfil the principles set out in the 2006 White Paper Our health, our care, our say (DH, 2006). The National Mental Health Development Unit, which had the responsibility for providing support for the implementation of mental health policy, took this work forward until its closure in March 2011.
The extensive policy changes following the new government in 2010 and the austerity measures that are affecting service delivery across the NHS and social care have made it difficult to be clear about the nature and extent of user involvement in mental health in the future. However, the new mental health strategy, No health without mental health (DH, 2011a), contains statements of the Coalition government's commitment to service users, including friends, families and carers, having a say in how services and policy are developed and delivered: ‘users of services will increasingly be able to take decisions about their own healthcare. They and their carers may wish to become involved in the planning and design of local services’ (DH, 2011a, p 30). Also, the Department of Health is currently funding the National Involvement Partnership, a collaboration between the National Survivor User Network, the Afiya Trust and the Social Perspectives Network. The National Involvement Partnership will develop involvement standards and monitor the impact of user involvement.
User involvement is not just about participating in policy-driven, organisational initiatives. It is also about involving oneself in peer groups, for personal support and/or political campaigning. It is generally seen as enabling and there seems to be a belief in its intrinsic value.
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- Mental Health Service Users in ResearchCritical Sociological Perspectives, pp. 121 - 134Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2013
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