Who says service users want this research and what will they get out of it?

2004 Conference

This workshop will provide short input for group discussion. It will consider how nationally service users’ views can lead to the identification of a research topic and become the basis of a research project, exploring the complex issues that are involved in bringing about change nationally and locally, based on such research findings.

The focus of the project concerned was the relationship between receiving benefits and participating in research and other activities. It was carried out by Shaping Our Lives, a national user controlled organization. The workshop will examine both the complexities of initiating such user chosen research and of making change based on it, at the same time as ensuring that service users stay involved in the overall (often difficult) process.

• open up discussion about some of the issues/tensions that arise when there is an aspiration to take forward user controlled research and address its commitment to making change.
• share experience, highlight complexities and ways of addressing them, by focusing on ways in which service users may make their priorities known and the sensitive response this requires.
• support ways of thinking through and taking forward research which starts from the concerns of service users/consumers/public.