REFOCUSing on lived-experience involvement as part of a recovery orientated training programme intervention in two Mental Health Trusts: A paper to explore the successes and challenges of livedexperience speakers in an RCT setting
2012 Conference
Abstract:
Addressed themes:
- How people are involved in research
- Learning from past experiences
- Learning and support
- How and what is provided
- Sharing resources, mentoring, and peer support
The Refocus Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT) aims to deliver and evaluate personal recovery focused training across community mental health teams in the SLaM (South London and Maudsley) and 2gether (Gloucestershire) NHS Foundation Trusts, as part of a manual-based pro-recovery intervention (Bird et al 2011). People with lived experience of mental health services have been involved in overseeing this project’s development through various local and national project steering group committees (Slade et al 2010), as well as forming part of the personal recovery training teams.
The skills, insights, and recovery journeys of lived experience speakers, in partnership with Rethink, form an integral part of this reflective training programme. Implementation of the training intervention has so far met with several challenges, and through the joint effort of researchers and Rethink workers, we are in the process of revising the training format and responding to issues arising around mental health staff’s perceptions of the training.
The service user movement partly developed from discussions between research teams on how to ensure involvement was more than tokenistic (for example Trivedi and Wykes 2002). We hope that others can learn from our experiences of employing lived experience trainers within the trial, and inspire discussion on the lessons we have learned, including the considerations that should be made when involving lived experience speakers, and the benefits of collaborative involvement to train mental health staff. Alongside this we will also discuss service user involvement within the local steering group in 2gether, considering the influences this has had on how we run the Refocus RCT in Gloucestershire.
- Bird V, Leamy,M, Le Boutillier C, Williams J and Slade M (2011) REFOCUS: Promoting Recovery in Community Mental Health Services. London: Rethink (www.researchintorecovery.com/refocus).
- Slade M, Bird V, Chandler R, Fox J, Larsen J, Tew J. and Leamy M (2010) The contribution of advisory committees and public involvement to large studies: case study. BMC Health Services Research. Volume 10.
- Trivedi P and Wykes T (2002) From passive subjects to equal partners: Qualitative review of user involvement in research. The British Journal of Psychiatry. Volume 181.
Authors
Gomme ~ Sally
Sally Gomme is employed by Rethink, and leads the Personal Recovery training programme for the Refocus RCT nationally.
View all articles by this authorLeamy ~ Mary
Programme Co-ordinator, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London. Mary Leamy has a background as an academic psychologist and is currently the Programme Co-ordinator of REFOCUS, a large programme of inter-linked studies looking at ways of increasing the recovery focus of mental health services.
View all articles by this authorPage ~ Emma
Emma Page previously worked in the Gloucestershire Recovery in Psychosis (Early Intervention) team and has recently been employed as a Clinical Studies Officer involved in the Refocus RCT within 2gether NHS Foundation Trust.
View all articles by this authorRobinson ~ Vanessa
Vanessa Robinson is employed by Rethink, and works alongside Sally Gomme as a lived experience Personal Recovery trainer.
View all articles by this authorSanger ~ Kevanne
Kevanne Sanger, REFOCUS Research Assistant, 2gether NHS Foundation Trust. After gaining a BSc and MSc in Psychology from Bangor University she was employed by 2gether NHS Foundation Trust, and is currently working as the full-time Research Assistant on the Refocus RCT in Gloucestershire.
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