Participatory development of a research training module for mental health care users

2014 Conference

Abstract: The development of methods to engage patients in the planning, execution and evaluation of research projects is of major importance for user empowerment. Collaborative participation of experts by experience in research has been implemented internationally and is increasingly acknowledged in Germany. Principles for successful involvement have been concerted and include research training for patients. Concepts and manuals for training courses exist, that is in Australia and the United Kingdom, but not yet in Germany. The experienced involvement (EX-IN) training program for mental health care users in Germany enables participants to become peer counsellors. This provides the opportunity to pass research competencies to participants of EX-IN and to enable them to contribute to research projects in a meaningful way. The aims of the project were to (1) develop and (2) evaluate an EX-IN research training module to prepare mental health care users to act as peer researchers.

The content and methods of the research training module was defined in five participatory meetings with mental health care service users and researchers. In addition to brainstorming, prioritization techniques and group work, a central method was writing minutes of the meetings. Based on the minutes, the researchers developed training concepts and appropriate material. They prepare for conducting the research training module.

The research training module will be piloted with one of the group meetings in May 2014. Furthermore, a new EX-IN course will participate in the research training module in July 2014. Both modules will be evaluated.

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