Service user involvement in mental health research poses specific challenges for both researchers and service users.
The book describes the relevant background and principles underlying the concept of service user involvement in mental health research, providing relevant practical advice on how to engage with service users and how to build and maintain research collaboration on a professional level. It highlights common practical problems in service user involvement, based on experience from various countries with different social policies and suggests ways to avoid pitfalls and common difficulties.
The book helps researchers decide which level of service user involvement will be adequate for their research activities and what will be feasible in view of the practicalities involved. It is also ideal for service users who are interested in becoming involved in research, providing relevant background information on the possibilities of involvement in professional research.
Jan Wallcraft is manager of the Service User Research Group for England (SURGE). She has been a leading member of the survivor/service user movement for many years and has contributed to a number of publications, e.g. 'On Our Own Terms: a report on the mental health service user movement'; 'Being There In A Crisis', and 'Social Perspectives in Mental Health'.
Beate Schrank has also worked for SURGE and has published on the concept of recovery in schizophrenia and on the use of the internet by people with schizophrenia.
Michaela Amering is internationally acknowledged in the field of public mental health and mental health policy. She has published on psychoeducation, informal carers (relatives), psychiatric advance directives and gender issues in mental health care, and has recently published a book on the 'recovery perspective' and its relevance in the care for people with psychosis. She has worked on user involvement issues in different countries and mental health care settings. She is secretary of the World Psychiatric Association Committee on Mental Health Policy. The English translation of her book on Recovery in Mental Health will also be published in March 2009.
All three editors have an impressive track record in the field of user involvement in mental health care.
