Service User Involvement in Research
A number of innovative research projects have been pioneered within the School of Community and Health Sciences to advance service user involvement in the research of care and the education of community and health care workers.
Paul Godin et al (2007) facilitated a group of service users to conduct a Department of Health funded research project to evaluate forensic mental health care. The service users of this project were employed as researchers at City University and assisted by academics, from within the school, to produce the project's final report.
Alan Simpson, Lisa Reynolds and colleagues (2007) developed and evaluated an innovate education project that involved mental health service users engaging in online discussions with mental health nursing students to ensure the user perspective informed student learning. Another educational project concerned the support of mental health carers (Simpson & Benn 2007).
A number of projects led by Len Bowers (2006, 2007) have seen the employment of service users to jointly develop questionnaires and interview schedules and to undertake research interviews with study participants in local mental health services. The service user researcher also contributed to publications and the presentation of results.
Julia Jones is leading a study investigating aggressive incidents on haemodialysis units in two London hospitals. The study team includes a researcher with direct experience of haemodialysis units as a patient.
In Midwifery, PhD student Emma Etuk has started to explore the involvement of women using maternity services in the mentorship of student midwives.
A new project, led by Alan Simpson, will measure the impact of peer support, where mental health service users are provided with training and supervision to provide support to people being discharged from psychiatric hospitals.
If you are interested in developing a research degree proposal in the area of user involvement then Paul Godin and Alan Simpson are happy to discuss your ideas and application with you.
References
Bowers, L., Hackney, D., Nijman, H., Grange, A., Allan, T., Simpson, A., Hall, C. & Eyres, S. (2007) A Longitudinal Study of Conflict and Containment on Acute Psychiatric Wards: Report to the DH Policy Research Programme. London, City University.
http://www.citypsych.com/docs/TAWSreport.pdf (pdf)
Bowers, L., Whittington, R., Nolan, P., Parkin, D., Curtis, S., Bhui, K., Hackney, D., Allan, A., Simpson, A., & Flood, C. (2006) The City 128 Study of Observation and Outcomes on Acute Psychiatric Wards: Report to the NHS SDO Programme. London, City University.
http://www.citypsych.com/docs/city128.pdf (pdf)
Godin, P., Davies, J., Heyman, B., Reynolds, L., Simpson, A. & Floyd, M. (2007) Opening communicative space: A Habermasian understanding of a user led participatory research project, Forensic Psychiatry & Psychology. 18 (4), 452 - 469.
http://www.city.ac.uk/sonm/dps/research/Godin%20final%20report.pdf (pdf)
Simpson, A. & Benn, L. (2007) Scoping exercise to inform the development of a National Mental Health Carer Support Curriculum. London: City University/Together: Working for Wellbeing. http://www.citypsych.com/docs/Carersfinal.pdf (pdf)
Simpson, A., Reynolds, L., Light, I. & Attenborough, J. (2007) Talking with the Experts: Evaluation of an online discussion forum with mental health service users and student nurses. Nurse Education Today. 28(5), 633-640.