Mental Health, Service User Involvement and Recovery

As the momentum for personalisation and recovery approaches grows, service users are increasingly participating as partners in all aspects of health and social care delivery, policy-making and professional training. This book provides an overview of service user involvement in mental health, its origins and current practice and policy.

Written cooperatively by service users and academics, this book conveys a vital connection between recovery and involvement, offering a framework of values and helpful strategies to promote meaningful user participation. By sharing their personal narratives and contributing their views, service user authors demonstrate how taking control of their own care facilitates a swifter and more satisfying recovery. The book further acknowledges the bilateral value of user involvement in the development of mental health services, student learning, collaborative research and challenging social stigma, providing examples and critical appraisal of how this is currently being implemented.

With a strong, positive emphasis on the benefits to all stakeholders, Service User Involvement and Recovery in Mental Health offers guidelines for good practice that will be relevant to health and social care practitioners, service users, students, researchers and educators.

Julie Gosling is Director of Advocacy in Action, a service user consultancy, and Visiting Lecturer, University of Nottingham, UK. She has over 20 years' experience at the forefront of service user involvement and in creating partnerships.