Community co-production engaging youth with mental health problems. Is equal participation possible?

ABSTRACT

Community co-production is intended to improve public democracy as well as welfare economy. This single case study is a ‘most likely’ case for success and explores how experiences of equal participation among youth with mental health problems take place in a partnership between a social enterprise and a Danish municipality. I explore how the democratic dimension is configured in relation to a focus on service production and efficiency. Applying the multidimensional model of ‘the collaborative turn’ I find that equal participation of vulnerable citizens can be enhanced through co-production when youth with mental health problems equally partake in activities including supervisors from the municipality and a blended group of local participants. This, however, provide a dilemma. As part of their thriving, young people need to take an independent stand on things and interact in different transforming roles. But for the municipality, participation is a means to achieve municipal goals and supervisors can set standards for the participation of young people that contribute to stigma and inhibits the equal participation.

KEYWORDS:

• Community co-production
• youth with mental health problems
• critical single case study
• equal participation

Acknowledgements

The author expresses her appreciation to Professor Linda Lundgaard Andersen Roskilde University Denmark for her valuable comments and the evaluation partnership for contribution to the data-collection.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This data collection was funded by the Danish National Board of Social Services.