Perspectives of experts-by-experience: an exploration of lived experience involvement in social work education

ABSTRACT

The involvement of service users and carers is mandated in the development and delivery of social work education since 2002. At our university we have a very active group of six Service User and Carer Involvement (SUCI) experts who contribute to all aspects of the undergraduate and post graduate qualifying social work programmes. Six SUCI experts participated in a workshop to explore their lived experience of involvement in social work education. Qualitative data was recorded with permission and later transcribed as the participants discussed their perspectives of involvement in the programmes. Themes were co-created during the workshop and captured on a whiteboard; this was later photographed. Thematic data analysis was also applied to the discussion. Themes co-created in this study were identified as: expertise; motivations; authenticity; diversity; challenging students; enablers and barriers; and areas for improvement. The SUCI experts noted their sense of cohesion and team support as a group which was essential to their positive experiences of involvement; and identified their motivations for involvement which encourages them to challenge students to improve their practice. Moving forward we are committed to exploring how we can ensure effective involvement by developing co-production and ensuring the effective and creative involvement of the group.

KEYWORDS:

• Service user involvement
• social work education
• lived experience
• service user participation
• experts-by-experience

Acknowledgments

My thanks to the ARU SUCI (Service User / Carer Involvement) Group experts for their honest thoughts in contributing to the writing of this article, and their ongoing and deep commitment to supporting the training of social work students at ARU.

Disclosure statement

There is no conflict of interest in writing or publishing this paper.

Notes

1. SUCI is the name that the group has traditionally called itself; therefore, the term, SUCI experts (Service user and carer involvement experts), is used in this article in keeping with the identity of the university group of EbEs (experts-by-experience).

Additional information

Funding

No additional funding was received for undertaking this research. SUCI members were paid for their time and travel expenses for participating in the workshop by our University.

Notes on contributors

Joanna Fox

Joanna Fox is both a social work academic and service user expert.  Her research interests include using participatory forms of research, working with carers to inform them about the recovery approach, developing shared-decision-making in mental health care, and supporting service user and carer involvement in social work education.