Challenges of Partnership with the Mental Health Service Users in Service Planning and Management

Abstract

Partnership with mental health service users has recently picked up momentum in Hong Kong, fueled by managerial impetus and the popularity of the recovery movement. Findings of a collaborative research study conducted in partnership with stakeholders of a local community mental health service center uncover the stakeholders’ mixed attitude toward partnership with mental health service users in service planning and management. The authors’ experience in facilitating the collaborative research reveals that successful partnership with mental health service users requires conscientious leadership and communicative capability among the facilitators, as well as an ontological stance embracing multiple realities.

Keywords:

• collaborative research
• Hong Kong
• mental health service
• partnership
• user participation