The Journal of Mental Health Training Education and Practice

Bailey, Di

2010 The Journal of Mental Health Training Education and Practice

doi: 10.5042/jmhtep.2010.0213

Bailey, Di

2010 The Journal of Mental Health Training, Education and Practice

doi: 10.5042/jmhtep.2010.0213

Robin Ion; Sue Cowan; Ron Lindsay

2010 The Journal of Mental Health Training Education and Practice

doi: 10.5042/jmhtep.2010.0214

The notion of mental health service user involvement in curriculum design and delivery has become commonplace over recent years. However, concern has been expressed that the rhetoric has not matched the reality. In particular, service user involvement has tended towards either tokenism or over‐sensitivity to the point of near inertia. By contrast, this paper describes a project that took a pragmatic approach and was designed to make involvement in curriculum planning, design and delivery meaningful and worthwhile for service users, students and educators alike. The paper has two principal objectives. In the first instance, it outlines the strategy for involvement that was used to inform curriculum design and delivery at the University of Abertay Dundee. This was grounded in the academic literature. Second, it provides an evaluation of this strategy based on practical experience and identifies some of the difficulties that must be overcome to work in a collaborative manner. In so doing, it examines some of the common concerns of educational staff, service users and students in relation to service user involvement. In conclusion, we provide recommendations for educators seeking to involve mental health service users in a meaningful manner in both the design of training programmes for mental health workers, and in their delivery.

Ion, Robin ; Cowan, Sue ; Lindsay, Ron

2010 The Journal of Mental Health Training, Education and Practice

doi: 10.5042/jmhtep.2010.0214

The notion of mental health service user involvement in curriculum design and delivery has become commonplace over recent years. However, concern has been expressed that the rhetoric has not matched the reality. In particular, service user involvement has tended towards either tokenism or over-sensitivity to the point of near inertia. By contrast, this paper describes a project that took a pragmatic approach and was designed to make involvement in curriculum planning, design and delivery meaningful and worthwhile for service users, students and educators alike. The paper has two principal objectives. In the first instance, it outlines the strategy for involvement that was used to inform curriculum design and delivery at the University of Abertay Dundee. This was grounded in the academic literature. Second, it provides an evaluation of this strategy based on practical experience and identifies some of the difficulties that must be overcome to work in a collaborative manner. In so doing, it examines some of the common concerns of educational staff, service users and students in relation to service user involvement. In conclusion, we provide recommendations for educators seeking to involve mental health service users in a meaningful manner in both the design of training programmes for mental health workers, and in their delivery.

Hugh Masters; Susanne Forrest

2010 The Journal of Mental Health Training Education and Practice

doi: 10.5042/jmhtep.2010.0215

Mental health service user involvement in education has gained momentum and prominence over the past decade, but service user involvement in the assessment of students' practice remains underdeveloped. This paper reports findings from a qualitative analysis of documentary data that captured service users' feedback to mental health student nurses about their practice. Third year mental health nursing students in acute inpatient placements were required to elicit, record and reflect on the feedback that service users gave them about their practice.One hundred and eighty eight accounts of this feedback were analysed and findings are presented in terms of the methods that students used to gain feedback and the issues that emerged from this. The analysis also explored the role that students appear to play in care delivery and what aspects of their role service users most valued. The impact that the feedback had on the students' learning and practice is examined and discussed in relation to future opportunities for, and likely barriers to, continued service user involvement in assessing students' practice.

Masters, Hugh ; Forrest, Susanne

2010 The Journal of Mental Health Training, Education and Practice

doi: 10.5042/jmhtep.2010.0215

Mental health service user involvement in education has gained momentum and prominence over the past decade, but service user involvement in the assessment of students' practice remains underdeveloped. This paper reports findings from a qualitative analysis of documentary data that captured service users' feedback to mental health student nurses about their practice. Third year mental health nursing students in acute inpatient placements were required to elicit, record and reflect on the feedback that service users gave them about their practice. One hundred and eighty eight accounts of this feedback were analysed and findings are presented in terms of the methods that students used to gain feedback and the issues that emerged from this. The analysis also explored the role that students appear to play in care delivery and what aspects of their role service users most valued. The impact that the feedback had on the students' learning and practice is examined and discussed in relation to future opportunities for, and likely barriers to, continued service user involvement in assessing students' practice.

Lucy Simons; Steve Tee; Tina Coldham

2010 The Journal of Mental Health Training Education and Practice

doi: 10.5042/jmhtep.2010.0216

Mental health education aims to develop valuesbased practice to support practitioners in clinical decision‐making. Values‐based practice requires high levels of cultural competence achieved through service user participation in professional preparation. The degree of service user participation remains dependent on the values of programme providers.In this paper, we consider whether strategies to involve service users in mental health professional education can support the principles of valuesbased practice. To do this, we have drawn on the findings from qualitative studies of educators' practices and their views regarding service user involvement. Values‐based practice requires self‐awareness of values impacting on decisions and knowledge derived from service users' personal accounts. The studies suggest that while opportunities exist for service users to present their accounts, few examples of service user involvement facilitated deeper examination of values underpinning decision‐making. Enabling service users to influence values‐based practice development requires more authentic participatory approaches. Educators valued the contribution of service users' experiential knowledge to the learning process, but there was less evidence of educators' values base that would model commitment to the empowerment of service users.

Simons, Lucy ; Tee, Steve ; Coldham, Tina

2010 The Journal of Mental Health Training, Education and Practice

doi: 10.5042/jmhtep.2010.0216

Mental health education aims to develop valuesbased practice to support practitioners in clinical decision-making. Values-based practice requires high levels of cultural competence achieved through service user participation in professional preparation. The degree of service user participation remains dependent on the values of programme providers. In this paper, we consider whether strategies to involve service users in mental health professional education can support the principles of valuesbased practice. To do this, we have drawn on the findings from qualitative studies of educators' practices and their views regarding service user involvement. Values-based practice requires self-awareness of values impacting on decisions and knowledge derived from service users' personal accounts. The studies suggest that while opportunities exist for service users to present their accounts, few examples of service user involvement facilitated deeper examination of values underpinning decision-making. Enabling service users to influence values-based practice development requires more authentic participatory approaches. Educators valued the contribution of service users' experiential knowledge to the learning process, but there was less evidence of educators' values base that would model commitment to the empowerment of service users.

McIlrae, Shona ; Wilkes, Elaine ; Downey, Michael ; Colley, Monica

2010 The Journal of Mental Health Training, Education and Practice

doi: 10.5042/jmhtep.2010.0217

Depression is a common and chronic illness affecting nearly one in five people in their lifetime. The main responsibility for people suffering from depression falls to their carers. Research indicates that carers find the burden of caring for a family member enormous and often feel isolated with this burden (Highet et al , 2004). This paper presents an evaluation of a six-week course held in Leeds, based on the principles of cognitive behavioural therapy and specifically aimed for carers. Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) is a recognised intervention technique for people with mental distress (Beck, 1976; Beck et al , 1979). The approach was used with carers to help them to become aware of their thoughts, feelings, behaviour and physical reactions to certain stressful situations when caring for a family member. The approach was introduced within the safety of a supportive group situation. Average attendance was 84% and feedback suggested that this approach was beneficial to carers in coping with the stress of the carer role.

Shona McIlrae; Elaine Wilkes; Michael Downey; Monica Colley

2010 The Journal of Mental Health Training Education and Practice

doi: 10.5042/jmhtep.2010.0217

Depression is a common and chronic illness affecting nearly one in five people in their lifetime. The main responsibility for people suffering from depression falls to their carers. Research indicates that carers find the burden of caring for a family member enormous and often feel isolated with this burden (Highet et al, 2004). This paper presents an evaluation of a six‐week course held in Leeds, based on the principles of cognitive behavioural therapy and specifically aimed for carers. Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) is a recognised intervention technique for people with mental distress (Beck, 1976; Beck et al, 1979). The approach was used with carers to help them to become aware of their thoughts, feelings, behaviour and physical reactions to certain stressful situations when caring for a family member. The approach was introduced within the safety of a supportive group situation. Average attendance was 84% and feedback suggested that this approach was beneficial to carers in coping with the stress of the carer role.