Capacity building in a mental health service user and carer research group: Experiences at Rotherham Doncaster and South Humber Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust (RDASH)

2008 Conference

The poster will seek to:

• Provide a brief history of the genesis and development of a mental health service
  user and carer research group at Rotherham Doncaster and South Humber
  Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust;
• Describe the group’s experiences of engaging in consultation exercises about
  national research priorities, reviewing research proposals, building research
  capacity and developing research proposals;
• Illustrate the support required to sustain the group in its work, and the challenges
  associated with sustainability;
• Provide some storying of the personal experiences of group members in order to
  highlight (i) the value of service user and carer groups as experts by experience
  in addressing the personalisation agenda in research, and (ii) moral dilemmas in
  research;
• Raise some wider issues for debate about the funding of user and carer research
  groups, pre-protocol work, engagement with ‘seldom heard’ groups and the limits
  of participatory strategies.