Using Community Mental Health Services: Asking users

Abstract

Quality enhancement initiatives, service user involvement and issues of empowerment have been widely promoted during the 1990s, but what do they actually mean for service users? Much of the literature regarding mental health service provision suggests that statutory services fail to meet the needs of service users in many ways. This article describes the undertaking of qualitative research in a non-statutory community mental health setting and discusses the findings. Although qualitative methods have drawbacks in terms of making generalisations, the research confirmed some common findings but also unearthed several issues of interest to professionals responsible for planning, developing and delivering mental health services.