What service users can teach us Flashcards
What is service user involvment?
Involving service users in the planning, delivery and evaluation of care.
Service users and providers can benefit from each other, service users can get the empowerement, providers can learn to deliver more effective treatment
What is service user involvment?
Involving service users in the planning, delivery and evaluation of care.
Service users and providers can benefit from each other, service users can get the empowerement, providers can learn to deliver more effective treatment
In England, the Department of Health has been strongly committed to promoting and enabling service user involvement since the publication of the NHS and Community Care Act in 1990.
Who is a service user?
Patients: have direct experience of using a service and are in a good position to give views on how a service could be improved.
Carers: their perspective and views are often different to the ones of the people they care for.
The Public: we are all potential users of mental health services, hence have views on the services we would like to receive.
Collective knowledge held by these groups can inform on a wide range of issues e.g. discrimination and accessibility.
What are the types of service user involvment?
Feedback surveys
Focus groups
Co-working, e.g. therapeutic groups, peer support groups
Sitting on recruitment panels
Advisory committees
Representation in management meetings and steering groups
Module co-production: Lecture/class delivery
In research (from design to publication) + some sponsors require to have a service user involved
Benefits to clinicians
- Better understanding of the patient’s distress and needs
- Insight into how to improve care
- Decreased stigma amongst clinical staff
Benefits to the service user
- Enhanced quality of life
- Increased self-esteem, confidence and sense of control
- Decreased hopelessness and distress
- Financial gain from involvement
- Learning transferable skills
Obstacles in service user engagement
- Representativeness
- Tokenism- some people do not want to be invovled more than they have to and they shouldn’t become ‘symbols’ of getting better
- Lack of interest
- Cognitive impairment
- Use of jargon
- Staff attitudes (“We know what they want anyway!”or “we know what is best for them”)
- Organisational obstacles
Evidence base (overall) for service user engagement
- No negative consequences for services from RCTs
- Fewer instances of hospitalisation of patients
- Less stigmatising / negative veiws towards patients by the clincal stuff
- Clients report being less satisfied with services when interviewed by service users rather than clinical staff
