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Worldwide, there has been a growth in service user involvement in education and research in recent years. This handbook is the first book which identifies what is happening in different regions of the world to provide different countries and client groups with the opportunity to learn from each other. The book is divided into five sections: Section One examines service user involvement in context exploring theoretical issues which underpin service user involvement. In Section Two we focus on the state of service user involvement in human services education and research across the globe including examples of innovative practice, but also identifying examples of where it is not happening and why. Section Three offers more detailed examination of such involvement in a wide range of professional education learning settings. Section Four focuses on the involvement of service users in research involving a wide range of service user groups and situations. Lastly, Section Five explores future challenges for education and research to ensure involvement remains meaningful. The book includes forty-eight chapters, including seventeen case-studies, from all regions of the world, this is the first book to both highlight the subject’s methodological and theoretical issues and give practical examples in education and research for those wishing to engage in this field. It will be of interest to all service users, scholars and students of social work, nursing, occupational therapy, and other human service subjects.

Working actively to engage service users in participatory practices is both a policy expectation and a moral imperative for mental health social workers in contemporary Western mental health care. Recent research suggests that such practices of service user involvement are becoming increasingly individualised and driven by market logic. Based on an ethnographic study within a Swedish public psychiatric organisation, this article applies the concept of commodification to examine this trend. By showing how the practice of user involvement takes the form of a market where personal narratives and experiences of mental health problems are bought and sold as commodities, the analysis illuminates how market logic permeates the everyday practice of user involvement. One consequence of this commodification is that user organisations, as well as individual service users, are restricted in their role as independent actors pursuing their own agenda, and instead increasingly act on behalf of the public and as providers of personal experiences. While it is vital that service user perspectives are heard and recognised within mental health services, mental health social workers need to be aware of the risks of commodifying lived experience. When attention is directed to individual experiences and narratives, there is a risk that opportunities to advocate on behalf of the user collective as a whole and speak from a more principled and socio-political standpoint are lost. In addition, the commodification of personal experience tends to rationalise and privilege user narratives that conform to the dominant institutional logic of the mental health organisation, while excluding more uncomfortable and challenging voices, thereby undermining the ability of service users to raise critical issues that do not align with the interests of the mental health organisation.

Background Suicide is the leading cause of avoidable death in prisons worldwide and suicide prevention is an international priority. Consequently, there is an urgent need to develop evidence‐based treatments. We conducted a randomized controlled trial of a novel suicide prevention psychological therapy for male prisoners. To promote ecological validity by addressing the “real‐world” situation of suicidal prisoners, we involved a consultant group of ex‐offenders with past experience of being suicidal during imprisonment. Service user involvement in prison research is challenging and underdeveloped. Objective We aimed to investigate the ex‐offender service user consultants’ experiences of being involved in the research. Design Individual qualitative interviews were conducted and analysed using an Interpretative Phenomenology Analysis (IPA) framework. Setting/participants The study was conducted at a university in North England, UK, comprising four ex‐offenders with experience of being suicidal during past imprisonments. Results Two superordinate themes were identified: “Working Together” depicted participants’ perceptions of the pivotal role of good relationships with researchers, and “Journey of Change” outlined how participants’ involvement in the research impacted on their personal lives. Discussion Little is known about how to successfully involve ex‐offender service users in research. Our results indicate the conditions necessary for successfully engaging ex‐offender service users in research and have important implications for improving the quality of prison research. Conclusions Involving forensic service users in research is feasible and should be encouraged, as despite certain challenges, it is highly rewarding both for the research and the ex‐offender service users.

Background It is a regulatory requirement in the United Kingdom and Australia that people who use services are involved in health professional education. Evaluating service user involvement aims to inform curriculum development and improvement. However, although there is research evaluating service user involvement in medical education, optimal outcome measures for other health professionals have not been identified. Objective This study focused on service user involvement in entry‐level education for nurses, midwives, allied health professionals, social workers and pharmacists. The aim was to (i) identify study characteristics, designs and methods used to measure outcomes, (ii) describe the characteristics of outcome measures used and (iii) identify the extent to which the outcome measures aligned with the modified Kirkpatrick Evaluation Framework. Search Strategy Medline, CINAHL and PsychINFO databases were systematically searched for studies published over a 24‐year period between 2000 and 2024. Two reviewers independently screened studies. A narrative synthesis was conducted. Measures were mapped to the modified Kirkpatrick Evaluation Framework. Results Nineteen studies using 29 measures were selected. Study designs were mostly quasi‐experimental with small university‐based samples. Data were typically collected pre‐ and post‐service user involvement, assessing changes in student knowledge and attitudes. Measures assessed the perspective of students (n = 29) and educators (n = 1), but not the service users' perspective (n = 0). Eight of the measures were validated; four for student health professionals and four for other populations. No measures aligned with the highest levels of the modified Kirkpatrick Evaluation Framework regarding the impact of service user involvement on the health system and patients. Conclusion Limitations in the study designs reduced the comparability and generalisability of the identified studies. None of the measures evaluated the impact of service user involvement on the health system or patients. Educators' perspectives on the service users' involvement in the education were limited. Service users' perspectives were absent. To embed a culture of involvement, future research is needed to identify the requirements of outcome measures from the perspective of service users and educators. Patient and Public Contribution Co‐author (S.R.), a lead for service user and carer involvement at an NHS Trust, guided the study design, data analysis and manuscript development.

Within psychiatric research fields, there has been a marked uptick of interest in service user involvement in recent years. Nevertheless, it is often unclear how robust or impactful common forms of inclusion are, and the extent to which they have included individuals with psychosis. Using collective auto-ethnography, this paper describes the experiences of 8 academic and non-academic members of the ‘lived experience’ and participatory research workgroup of a global psychosis Commission and our navigation of power and power hierarchies, differences in background and training, and multiple vectors of identity, diversity, and privilege. We conclude that the realities of “involvement” are much messier, more fraught, and less intrinsically empowering than often signaled in calls for involvement and co-production. We nevertheless stress the power of collective dialogue and support—between and among a pluralistic group—and of honesty and transparency about challenges, barriers, and the colonial underpinnings and geopolitics of global mental health.

Background The concept of service user involvement is an evolving concept in the mental health‐care literature. Objective This study sought to explore and analyse the concept of service user involvement as used in within the field of mental health care. Methodological approach An evolutionary concept analysis was conducted using a literature‐based sample extracted from an electronic database search. One hundred and thirty‐four papers met the inclusion criteria and were analysed to discover key attributes, antecedents and consequences of service user involvement and to produce a definition of the concept. Findings Five key attributes of service user involvement within the context of mental health care were identified: a person‐centred approach, informed decision making, advocacy, obtaining service user views and feedback and working in partnership. Discussion and conclusions Clarity of the attributes and definition of the concept of service user involvement aims to promote understanding of the concept among key stakeholders including mental health professionals, service users and community and voluntary organizations. The findings of the research have utility in the areas of theory and policy development, research on service user involvement in mental health care and service user involvement in mental health practice. Directions for further research regarding the concept are identified.

Patient-reported measures that assess satisfaction and experience are increasingly utilised in healthcare sectors, including the alcohol and other drug (AOD) sector. This scoping review identifies how and to what extent people accessing AOD services have been involved in the development of satisfaction and experience measures to date. PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL, Scopus, ProQuest, Google and Google Scholar were searched. Included papers described the development and/or implementation of a multiple-item measure of patient-reported experience or satisfaction specifically for people accessing AOD treatment and/or harm reduction programmes. If there was more than one paper, key papers were chosen that described each measure. The method of development, including service user involvement, was assessed against a framework generated for this review. Two reviewers were involved at each stage. Thirty measures-23 satisfaction and 7 experience-were identified. Sixteen measures reported some level of involvement by people accessing AOD services in their development, although, for most measures, at a relatively low level. This involvement increased over the time span of the review becoming more frequent in later years. Only four measures were developed for use in harm reduction-specific settings, and fewer than half reported undertaking analysis of underlying scale structure and constructs. Several gaps could be addressed to enhance the measurement of patient-centred care in the AOD sector, including: developing experience measures for use in harm reduction settings and across various AOD settings in a service system; improved reporting of psychometric properties of these measures and increasing commitment to the meaningful involvement of AOD service users in measure development. This scoping review is part of a broader codesign project that involves a partnership between the peak organisation for AOD services and the peer-based AOD consumer organisation in the Australian Capital Territory, Australia. These organisations are working closely together to engage with AOD service users, service providers and policy makers in this codesign project. As such, the Executive Director of the peer-based AOD consumer organisation is involved as a co-author of this scoping review.

Context Despite a growing interest in service‐user involvement in mental health services, the interaction between health institutions and local groups is only beginning to receive attention, particularly in global south settings. Objective Looking at a participatory initiative in Chile, this study explores how, under unfavourable administrative conditions, health organizations approach and work with communities. Methods We interviewed policy‐makers (5), local professionals (10), service users and community representatives (6) linked to a concrete participatory initiative. Participant observation in relevant meetings helped to enrich the interpretations. Thematic analysis was applied to interview transcripts and field notes. Findings The findings present a sequence of actions starting with the creation of a network of community‐based groups. A set of problems ensued, related to the group's diversity, internal representation, decision‐making and funding processes. In response, processionals implemented simultaneously bureaucratic and democratic adjustments, developing a vision of community that ignored the particularities—including the motivations—of local groups. Discussion and conclusion Based on these findings, we argue that participatory initiatives should be studied as on‐going achievements shaped by broad policy orientations and local configurations of interest. In the process, they produce ad hoc forms of knowledge and visions of community that provide orientation to the agents involved.

Background User involvement and recovery are now widely used terms within the mental health policy, research and practice discourse. However, there is a question mark about the impact these ideas have in everyday practice. Of interest is the degree of involvement in key transitions of care. In particular, admission to and discharge from acute inpatient mental health wards. Objective To explore the nature of service user involvement in the admission and discharge process into and out of acute inpatient mental health care. Design A qualitative study using focus groups. Setting and Participants One acute, inpatient mental health ward was the focus of the study. Seven uniprofessional focus group interviews were conducted with ward staff, community staff and service users (total number of participants = 52). Conventional, thematic qualitative techniques were used to analyse the data. Results The data analysed and presented in this article relate to the loss of the service user voice at the key transition points into and out of acute inpatient care. Due to the lack of resources (inpatient beds and community care follow‐up), the role service users could play was diminished. In their narratives, clinical staff associated the person with the process and used language which dehumanized the individual. Conclusion Service users experience numerous care transitions into and out of hospital. As there is the potential for these encounters to have a lasting negative effect, the importance of ensuring service users have a voice in what is happening to them is crucial.

Engaging users in software development is recognized as effective in furthering the likelihood of product efficacy and a successful project, together with user contentment. Furthermore, user involvement is potentially applicable to numerous organizational contexts that can incorporate a focused user-centered group. This research analyzes the findings of a case study carried out to assess the user involvement situation within a business specializing in innovative software for general consumers, service providers, and enterprises. This company has now formed a user experience group that is devoted to applying user-centered approaches for the overall development of the organizational structure. General feedback was confirmed as the most typical means of gaining user insight, with the level of user involvement in focused development falling short. Nevertheless, the study led to recognition that a firm plan for drawing users into development processes is necessary moving forward.