Improving user/carer involvement in commissioning and reviewing mental health services

Increasingly there is greater emphasis on user/carer involvement in the delivery of mental health care. There are five levels of participation from none at all to partnership and optimal involvement. A two-year pilot steering group was established by a health authority in December 2000 and criteria for independent evaluation agreed. These included the context, data collection, analysis and report, and recommendations based on the findings to increase user/carer involvement in all aspects of mental health service delivery. The steering group evaluation included analysis of documents, non-participant observation and semi-structured interviews. The methodology including measures and analysis follows and then the results. Four broad themes from the interviews with user/carer and manager emerged - for the user/carer these were membership, meeting style, sharing perception and having a voice, while the manager themes comprised representation/consultation, steering the steering group and delivering and achieving the [...]