Service user/survivor involvement in independent mental health advocacy research

This presentation will use an experiential and interactive approach (a workshop involving live performance and group discussion) to reflect on the experiences of a group of service user and academic researchers in UCLan working together to investigate independent mental health advocacy. The workshop will mainly explore how the service use researchers experienced and negotiated their involvement in the advocacy project alongside the academic team of researchers. Affirming, as well as challenging and unsettling, aspects of involvement for both service user and academic researchers will be examined. The presentation will also explore the service user and academic researchers’ views on the amount and quality of the support available to the service user researchers during their engagement with the project. The workshop will be structured around 3 short plays/vignettes followed by group discussion and take 90 minutes. We will consider recording of the plays on film so that they could be used in further discussions and reach a wider audience via online forums. Finally, the learning points and issues for discussion will be mainly drawn from the service user and academic researchers’ reflections on their learning and development through their personal and collective experience of involvement in the project