– The aim of the research is to assess the extent and value of mental health service user (MHSU) involvement in research in England.
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of the research is to assess the extent and value of mental health service user (MHSU) involvement in research in England.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a knowledge review, including academic and “grey” literature, and documented testimonial evidence.
Findings
The involvement of MHSUs in mental health research has become mainstream. There is clear evidence that involving MHSUs in research adds value. Four gaps in the literature were identified. First, a lack of evidence from non-service-user researchers about their experience of working with MHSUs. Second, a lack of recognition that anyone involved in research may hold more than one role. Third, failure to treat carers as separate from MHSUs, or – often – to include them at all. Fourth, a lack of understanding that MHSUs may have a useful role to play in research on topics other than mental health.
Research limitations/implications
The literature would benefit from some evidence about non-service-user researchers’ experiences of working with MHSU researchers. Carers should be recognised much more widely as different from MHSUs and with a valid role to play in mental health research from their own perspectives. MHSU researchers, and carer researchers, should be offered opportunities for involvement in research on topics other than mental health.
Practical implications
The evidence shows that involving service users in research can benefit everyone involved and the research itself. The process can be challenging for all concerned. However, there is now plenty of guidance about how to involve service users in research for maximum benefit to all (e.g. Faulkner, 2004b; SURGE, 2005; Morgan, 2006; Tew et al., 2006; Kotecha et al., 2007; Schrank and Wallcraft, 2008, pp. 243-247; Leiba, 2010, pp. 160-169; Armes et al., 2011; Morrow et al., 2012, p. 114). This guidance should be consulted by researchers, funders, ethics committees, and other stakeholders at the earliest possible stage of any relevant project.
Social implications
It is essential to recognise and acknowledge that anyone involved in research may hold more than one role. Embracing multiple and mutable identities is not an easy process, as the literature shows, and attempts to do so are likely to produce resistance at every level. Nevertheless, the example of the survivor researchers suggests that doing this has the potential to enrich our individual and collective experience, and therefore society as a whole.
Originality/value
The paper is written by an independent researcher who is also a carer for people with mental health problems: a viewpoint which is rarely found in the literature. The literature suggests that power imbalances and identity issues are at the root of most difficulties and gaps. Social identity and categorisation theory offers a useful theoretical perspective. The paper will be of value to anyone interested in mental health research, whether as a student, service user/survivor, researcher or teacher.
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– The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of a mental health carers’ research reference group on mental health research in the Heart of England region.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of a mental health carers’ research reference group on mental health research in the Heart of England region.
Design/methodology/approach
The methodology was a co-produced participatory evaluation, and the research was co-produced by the group. The design involved a literature review of carers’ involvement in UK mental health research, and collection of secondary data (group records) and primary data from researchers, group members, and facilitators. Analysis was initially thematic, then synthesised.
Findings
The group’s work had a positive impact on researchers and group members, and to some extent on mental health research and networks more widely. No negative impact was identified.
Research limitations/implications
The researchers were not able to contact or include everyone who had been involved with the group. Some of those who did not give input may have felt less positive about the group than those who did respond. Co-production does not signify equality. Evaluation inevitably involves bias.
Practical implications
The conclusion is that mental health carers have a unique and positive contribution to make to mental health research, and have the right to be involved in such research in a non-tokenistic way. This has practical implications for mental health and mental health research services.
Originality/value
This is the first mental health carer-controlled evaluation of a mental health carer research reference group. Mental health carers conducted the research and wrote this paper, giving a perspective rarely found in the literature. This has value for people working in, studying, and researching mental health, and for other mental health carers.
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This paper aims to explore the scope of fiction writing in academic research as a way of studying “messier” aspects of the process, such as emotion.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the scope of fiction writing in academic research as a way of studying “messier” aspects of the process, such as emotion.
Design/methodology/approach
The author reflects on her “lived experience” of conducting doctoral research, five years earlier and re‐searched for the paper, by composing a fictional narrative that aims to capture some of the emotional and other complexities of the process.
Findings
The author demonstrates that fictionalisation opens possibilities for a deeper probing of the emotional aspects of the research experience. Her conclusion is that this method can help researchers to think about the processes of writing, reflexivity, and emotion. It can also be useful to academic writers more widely, by showing how fiction writing techniques can convey some of the more complex aspects of their day‐to‐day activities.
Practical implications
The paper can act as a model for extending academic writing skills in the area of fiction, by introducing characterisation, plot and dialogue.
Originality/value
This paper offers an original account of the emotions of the doctoral writer, situated within current discourses on emotion, fiction writing and methodology. It will be of value to scholars of arts, humanities and social sciences.
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Paul F. Donnelly, Yiannis Gabriel and Banu Özkazanç‐Pan
The Guest Editors’ intent with this special issue is to tell tales of the field and beyond, but all with the serious end of rendering visible the largely invisible. This paper…
Abstract
Purpose
The Guest Editors’ intent with this special issue is to tell tales of the field and beyond, but all with the serious end of rendering visible the largely invisible. This paper aims to introduce the articles forming the special issue, as well as reviewing extant work that foregrounds the hidden stories and uncertainties of doing qualitative research.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors advance their arguments through a literature review approach, reflecting on the “state of the field” with regard to doing research and offering new directions on reflexivity as an ethical consideration for conducting qualitative research.
Findings
Far from consigning the mess entailed in doing qualitative research to the margins, there is much to be learned from, and considerable value in, a more thoughtful engagement with the dilemmas we face in the field and beyond, one that shows the worth of what we are highlighting to both enrich research practice itself and contribute to improving the quality of what we produce.
Originality/value
This paper turns the spotlight onto the messiness and storywork aspects of conducting research, which are all too often hidden from view, to promote the kinds of dialogues necessary for scholars to share their fieldwork stories as research, rather than means to a publication end.
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Helen Bocking, Rebekah Russell-Bennett and Kate Letheren
The use of supportive digital technology – the provision of supportive services and self-management health tools using digital platforms – by marketers is increasing alongside…
Abstract
Purpose
The use of supportive digital technology – the provision of supportive services and self-management health tools using digital platforms – by marketers is increasing alongside research interest in the topic. However, little is known about the motivations to use these tools and which tool features provide different forms of social support (informational, emotional, instrumental, network or esteem). The purpose of this paper is thus to explore consumer perceptions of supportive healthcare self-management and preferences for different levels of interactive features as social support in a health services context.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative approach involving 30 semi-structured interviews with consumers interested in two common preventative health services that use supportive digital tools (SDTs) (skin-cancer checks and sexually transmitted infection checks) was undertaken. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the verbatim transcripts.
Findings
This research identified there is a lack of motivation to initiate the search for SDTs; consumers are motivated by a desire to control and monitor health concerns and avoid overuse of the health system. The findings showed a preference for social support to go beyond informational support, with a need for interactivity that personalised support in a proactive manner.
Research limitations/implications
SDTs are positively perceived by consumers as part of health services. The motivation to use these tools is complex, and the social support needed is multifaceted and preferably interactive.
Practical implications
This research assists service marketers to better design informational and instrumental support for preventative self-managed healthcare services.
Originality/value
This paper extends knowledge about the motivation and social support required from SDTs in a preventative health service context.