User Involvement

One of the most important changes in recent years in mental health services has been an emerging voice for people who have used services — with such people being increasingly seen as ‘experts by experience’ (Beresford, 2003) rather than simply as passive recipients of services designed and delivered by professionals. To quote Peter Campbell, a long-term system survivor and activist:

Living with mental distress is, and is likely to remain, a difficult experience. Nevertheless there are grounds for believing that it is a better time to be a mental health service user in the UK (and numerous other countries) than it was 25 years ago …. One important aspect to these positive changes is the greater involvement of service users in their own care and treatment, in the development of better mental health services and in social change more generally. (Campbell, 2008: 291)