Search results

The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the development of a recovery-oriented training programme for mental health care-givers. It also considers the effectiveness of using participatory research methods that promote involvement of people with diverse expertise to co-produce this programme. It presents a rationale for developing recovery-oriented training, which employs blended learning, comprising face-to-face and e-learning.

A small advisory group consisting of professionals, experts-by-experience (service users) and -by-caring (care-givers) and an academic developed a blended learning programme about the recovery approach for mental health carer-givers. This paper details the participatory approach supported by an action research cycle that contributed to the design of the programme, and the specific impact of experiential knowledge on its development.

Reflections on the advisory group process are described that led to the co-production of the course. This leads to consideration of the value of using this research approach to develop a carer-focused programme. The content of the recovery-oriented training programme is presented which adopts blended learning. This leads to discussion of potential of this format to improve carers’ access to training.

It is proposed that this recovery-oriented course, building on a previous study, has the potential to positively influence outcomes for the training programme participants (the care-givers) and the person they support. It is suggested that blended learning may in part overcome some of the barriers carers experience to accessing and participating in traditional interventions. Reflections on the process of co-production underline the value of participatory research in designing this recovery-oriented course for carers.

The authors are two social work academics working in a UK Higher Education Institute. Social work is underpinned by principles of anti-oppressive practice which leads to challenge discrimination and stigmatisation. The authors explored experiences of deficit imposed by others' perceptions of the physical and ethnic appearance and mental health status. The authors consider how these features influence how the authors locate themselves within the wider contexts of academic spaces in higher education institutions (HEI).

Using duoethnography, a collaborative research methodology, the authors recorded reflections on their experiences for five months and met weekly to discuss their material. This process enabled them to engage in dialogic narrative through collaborative writing using both structured and unstructured reflections. The authors analysed the reflections using thematic data analysis.

Four themes were generated that led to understanding how the authors could challenge oppression. The oppression became visible as the authors reflected on the common experiences of deficit. The understanding of other's oppression as well as the authors’ own became clearer as the unconscious experiences became conscious. The authors began to locate the experiences of being both privileged and oppressed in the wider social context of the HE. Finally, the authors recognised how the “deficit” identities could transform into strengths.

This personal journey of two academics reflecting on how they are paradoxically both privileged and yet oppressed challenges other professionals to honestly explore how they themselves can occupy both roles and become allies in confronting discrimination in all its forms.

User involvement in research is entering the mainstream of traditional mental health research. In practice, there are diverse ways in which the process of involvement is experienced by mental health service user researchers. This paper aims to explore two diverse experiences of involvement by the researcher.

Auto-ethnography is the research methodology used in this study; it combines a process of reflective writing and critical analysis which enables the author to explore experiences of being both a service user and academic researcher. Two accounts of the author’s involvement in mental health research are presented: one which builds on a consultation model and the other based on co-production principles.

Experiences of power-sharing and collaborative decision-making, alongside disempowerment, are discussed, leading to exploration of the theoretical and practical processes for promoting participation of users in research.

The research is limited because it is undertaken by one individual in a local setting, and is therefore is not generalisable; however, it provides useful insights into the diverse processes of involvement that many service users experience.

Recommendations are presented to support the involvement of service users in research, with final remarks offered considering the possible future implementation of this still emerging tradition.

This paper reflects on the experiences of one service user academic involved in research and highlights diverse experiences of both empowering and disempowering involvement, providing recommendations for best practice.

This study aims to review how the mental ill-health of academic staff is regarded in higher education institutions (HEIs) and explore the decision to disclose (or not) a mental health condition whilst working in this sector.

The choice to disclose is explored by using duoethnography undertaken by two female academics working in this context who both experience mental ill-health. Both authors recorded their experiences, which were then shared with each other and analysed using thematic analysis.

The themes that emerged from the authors’ reflections comprise: a discussion of the connection between work-life identities and the impact of mental ill-health in the workplace; a consideration of the elements that influence our decision to disclose (or not) mental health diagnoses within HEI; and an examination of the additional burden of identity work for those who experience mental ill-health.

The study contributes to this evidence base by exploring the choice to disclose a mental health diagnosis in HEIs. It investigates this highly personal decision and suggests that this choice depends on the context in which we are located and how we experience our different identities in the workplace. Furthermore, it highlights the importance for HEIs to develop positive employment practices to support academic staff with mental ill-health to disclose a mental health condition and to achieve a good workplace environment whilst emphasising the need for more empirical work to explore the decision to disclose (or not) in this sector.

Drawing partly on her own experience, Joanna Fox seeks to unpack the expertise that service users bring to the design and delivery of mental health services. Service user involvement cannot be imposed by policy diktat from above, she argues. Rather, it must be nurtured at the grass roots, by allowing service users to take control over their own lives, and their care and treatment.

Drawing partly on personal experience, the author of this article seeks to unpack the expertise that service users bring to the design and delivery of mental health services. Service user involvement cannot be imposed by policy diktat from above, she argues. Rather, it must be nurtured at the grass roots, by allowing service users to take control over their own lives, and their care and treatment.

I describe the development of a group in North London that aimed to increase the involvement of carers in the development and monitoring of mental health services across the borough. I enabled the carers to evaluate their experiences of the group using a participatory action research model. The evaluation was divided into two phases. Phase 1 focused on how the carers developed effective processes to facilitate the individuals in the group to represent not only their experiences but those of the collective. I describe how a critical incident facilitated this discussion and how the carers used the action research cycle to enable this change. Phase 2 enabled the group to reflect on their experiences of the group's impact upon them. The carers identified the following main themes of their experience of the group: shared experience of mental health stigma; empowerment and increased confidence; increased knowledge to enable them to care for themselves and their loved one more effectively, although this was tinged with a sense of frustration. In this process, I reflect on the vision that I had for Carers Against Stigma (CAS) as a user researcher and practitioner working with carers. I discuss the potential conflict that I faced as a practitioner and researcher initiating a carer‐led group. The theoretical implications of the individual service representative representing the views of the collective are discussed, and their needs for access and support to be involved in research and service evaluation are identified.