Lisa Malihi‐Shoja

The value of involvement from the perspective of service users and carers engaged in practitioner education: Not just a cash nexus

This paper presents qualitative findings emergent from a participatory action research (PAR) study focused on developing service user and carer involvement in a university setting. The involvement of these experts by experience in practitioner education for health and social care, and nursing in particular, is now an international phenomenon. Adhering to the philosophy and practices of PAR, the project and the writing of this paper have been collectively produced. Data has been organised using simple thematic analysis into three broad themes accounting for different ways in which participating service users and carers obtain a sense of value from their involvement. We have titled these themes: a more positive sense of self; social and relational benefits; altruism in activism. Drawing on these participant narratives we develop an understanding of the relationship between involvement and reward that does not simply reflect value in payment.

The UCLan community engagement and service user support (Comensus) project: valuing authenticity, making space for emergence

Objective  To develop and evaluate service user, carer and community involvement in health and social care education.

Service User and Carer Involvement in Education for Health and Social Care: McKeown/Service User and Carer Involvement in Education for Health and Social Care

Promoting Partnership for Health. The Comensus Writing Collective: Notes on Authorship. Notes on Language. Introduction. Part I: The Context. 1 Service User and Carer Involvement in Higher Education. 2 The Social and Political Context. 3 Beyond the Campus: Universities, Community Engagement andSocial Enterprise. 4 Research and Evaluation of Service Users andCarers Involvement in Health Professional Education. 5 What Counts Cannot be Counted: Community Engagement as aCatalyst for Emotional Intelligence. Part II: Personal Experiences: The Case of Comensus. 6 Setting up a Service User and Carer Engagement Project:Comensus. 7 Climbing the Ladder of Involvement: A Manager sPerspective. 8 Stories of Engagement. 9 Making Sense of Involvement in Comensus. 10 Shedding Masks: Transitions in Mental Health and Education, aPersonal View. Conclusions. References. Appendices. Appendix 1: Research and Evaluation Planning Worksheet. Appendix 2: Terms of Reference for Comensus Advisory Group. Appendix 3: Year One Issues and Solutions. Appendix 4: Terms of Reference for CIT. Appendix 5: COMENSUS: Action Plan 2009. Appendix 6: Year Three Sub-Groups of The Community InvolvementTeam. Appendix 7: Year 3 Issues and Solutions. Appendix 8: Protocol for the Development of Learning ResourcesInvolving Service Users and/or Carers. Appendix 9: Service User/Carer/Public Consent Form. Index.

Service user involvement in practitioner education: Movement politics and transformative change

This paper will attempt to celebrate both key developments and best practice involving the users of health and social care services in programmes of practitioner education in a UK context, and offer a critical appraisal of the extent to which such initiatives meet some of the more transformative objectives sought by service user activists for change. The approach is largely that of a discussion paper but we will illustrate some of the themes relating to movement activism with selected data. These data relate to earlier research and two specially convened focus groups within the Comensus initiative at the University of Central Lancashire; itself constituted as a piece of participatory action research. We conclude that universities represent paradoxical sites for the facilitation of debate and learning relevant to key issues of social justice and change. As such, they are places that can impede or support movement aims. Particular strategic responses might be more likely to engender progressive outcomes. These ought to include the presence of critically engaged academic staff operating within a scholarly culture that fosters forms of deliberative democratic decision making.

We aren’t all winners

The paper will discuss from a service user/carer perspective the possible implications and ramifications that ‘failing to fail’ students has on service users and carers. We will start by briefly contextualising the issue drawing on the work of Rutkowski (2007), Dudek et al. (2005), Duffy (2003) and Cleland et al. (2008) and other authors who have contributed to the topic. We expand the debate from the service user and carer perspective examining likely causes and determinants and then move on to discussing the possible impact of this practice on those who are cared for. This paper will provide debate and discussion from a unique perspective being written by those who have lived experience of care delivered by students and qualified practitioners from the nursing and social work professions.