User and carer involvement in mental health training

Abstract

National policy in the UK emphasises the importance of involving service users and caregivers in all types of mental health provision. The training of mental health care and social service professionals has always relied on seeing patients, but the patients' role has usually been a passive one. This is now changing, and service users and carers are becoming active educators in professional training, benefiting both the teachers and those taught. Provision is still very variable and is dependent on local initiatives. Voluntary organisations are active in this field, and there are now two academic posts for service users in the UK. This article explores the current forms of service user training, its benefits and drawbacks, and makes recommendations for future work.