Service-user narratives in social work education; Co-production or co-option?

ABSTRACT

As a social work lecturer I have, over the years, developed strong links with service-user/survivor groups in an effort to contribute to a more context-focused and democratic approach to mental health education and practice. User narratives of psychiatric survival have been central in organizing resistance toward dominant constructions of ‘mental illness’. Within education, user narratives have created spaces for co-production with a transformative potential, as traditionally silenced voices can be heard and affirmed.

However, recent debates suggest that such narratives are often used by mental health and educational systems to promote their own agendas. In this context, user narratives are no longer considered a transformative act of co-production or resistance. They are a commodity servicing primarily the interests of these systems. This paper adds to these debates through a self-reflexive discussion on my experience of including user/survivor narratives in Irish social work education, as user narratives remain insufficiently critiqued in this context. I consider the significance of power operations in the contexts where narratives are shared and heard and argue for the need to honor what has been achieved while problematizing what may be lost through the inclusion of service-user narratives in social work education.

KEYWORDS:

• Mental health
• service-users
• narratives
• co-production
• co-option

Acknowledgments

Thank you Anne O’ Donnell, Liz Brosnan, Dina Poursanidou and Rory Doody; this work would simply have not been possible without our conversations and collaboration. Many thanks to Harry Gijbels, Helen Spandler and Mick Mckeown for their helpful feedback when writing this paper, and to my students who always help me to think and rethink what I do.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. For an overview see http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8124976.stm.

2. The annual critical perspectives conference is organized by the School of Applied Social Studies and the School of Nursing and Midwifery, University College Cork in association with the Critical Voices Network Ireland.

3. An office established within the Irish statutory health system, with the task of developing structures, systems and mechanisms for service user, family member and carer engagement.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lydia Sapouna

Lydia Sapouna is a lecturer in the School of Applied Social Studies, University College Cork, Ireland. She is interested in critical mental health education, research and activism and in promoting meaningful, context-informed responses to human distress.