Consumer participation in mental health services: looking from a consumer perspective

Widespread changes to the structure and delivery of mental health services have effected considerable change in the role of the service user or consumer. The view of consumers of mental health services as passive recipients of care and treatment is gradually undergoing a significant shift, in light of an increasing expectation that consumers be provided with opportunities to become actively involved in all aspects of their care. Consumer participation is now broadly reflected in government policy; however, to date there has been little exploration of the extent to which the policy is being realized in practice. To provide a greater understanding of these experiences and opinions, in-depth interviews were conducted with consumers of mental health services (n = 15). The interview transcripts were analysed through the identification and explication of major themes. The findings reinforce the need to view consumers as heterogeneous and respond to individual needs and interests regarding consumer participation. Despite variations in experience there is a clear need to develop mechanisms to support consumer involvement and to influence the attitudes of health professions to become more valuing of a consumer perspective. Nurses are in an ideal position to lead this process.

Mental health service user involvement in nurse education: exploring the issues

This paper reports on findings and issues arising from a study designed to promote mental health service users' involvement in a preregistration nursing curriculum. Users' views about the knowledge, skills and attributes required by mental health nurses were explored to inform the curriculum design. Strategies that would facilitate long term, active user involvement in the design and delivery of the curriculum were also explored. Findings are presented with concurrent discussion of issues arising from the research process in relation to user involvement in education. The issue of 'conflict' explores findings relating to users' views of a 'good' mental health nurse and inherent conflicts between user and professional views are highlighted. The representativeness of the research participants is explored and debated in relation to service user involvement in nurse education. Finally, the concepts of 'involvement' and 'tokenism' are discussed and recommendations made about how active user involvement in nurse education can be achieved.