Women's voices, Women's choices: Experiences and creativity in consulting women users of mental health services

Abstract

Background: User involvement in mental health has developed substantially since the mid 1980s. However, experiences of involvement are not always positive. This article discusses an attempt to enable women service users to make a positive contribution to the development of an “expert paper” on women only mental health services. It draws on theories of deliberative democracy and on critiques of these.

Aims: To devise an approach that would enable women to contribute in ways that they felt comfortable with, whilst also meeting the needs of the project.

Method: A workshop enabling diverse and flexible forms of expression.

Results: Women had positive experiences of being able to tell their stories in an environment that recognized and valued the substance and emotional content of what they had to say. The workshop contributed to identification of issues in the design of services that are important to women service users.

Conclusion: Methods to enable “user involvement” require environments which enable diverse forms of expression if these are to generate learning and offer recognition to service users.

Declaration of interest: The research of which this initiative formed a part was funded by the Department of Health. We are grateful for their support. The views expressed are those of the authors.

Keywords:

• Women service users
• workshop
• mental health services