Developing sustainable service user involvement practices in mental health services in Sweden: the "Userinvolve" research program protocol

Urban Markström; Hilda Näslund; Ulla-Karin Schön; David Rosenberg; Ulrika Bejerholm; Anneli Gustavsson; Mårten Jansson; Elisabeth Argentzell; Katarina Grim; Patrik Engdahl; Faten Nouf; Sara Lilliehorn; Petra Svedberg

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1282700

Developing sustainable service user involvement practices in mental health services in Sweden: the "Userinvolve" research program protocol

Front Psychiatry. 2023 Oct 12:14:1282700. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1282700. eCollection 2023.

Affiliations

¹ Department of Social Work, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden.
² Department of Social Work, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.
³ Department of Health Sciences, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.
⁴ The Swedish Partnership for Mental Health, NSPH, Stockholm, Sweden.
⁵ Department of Social and Psychological Studies, Karlstad University, Karlstad, Sweden.
⁶ School of Health and Welfare, Halmstad University, Halmstad, Sweden.

Abstract

Background: The purpose of this paper is to outline the protocol for the research program "UserInvolve," with the aim of developing sustainable, service user involvement practices in mental health services in Sweden.

Methods: This protocol outlines the knowledge gap and aim of the UserInvolve-program. It further provides an overview of the research infrastructure, with specific focus on the organization and management of the program as well as the design of the six underlying research projects. These six research projects form the core of the UserInvolve-program and will be carried out during a six-year period (2022-2027). The projects are focused on examining articulations of experiential knowledge in user collectives, on four specific user involvement interventions (shared decision-making, peer support, user-focused monitoring, and systemic involvement methods) and on developing theory and method on co-production in mental health research and practice.

Results or conclusion: The knowledge gained through the co-production approach will be disseminated throughout the program years, targeting service users, welfare actors and the research community. Based on these research activities, our impact goals relate to strengthening the legitimacy of and methods for co-production in the mental health research and practice field.

Keywords: co-production; involvement; mental health; protocol; research program; service users.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. The funders for the study are FORTE [grant number: 2021–01427] for the program, and FORTE [grant number: 2020–01328] for project 4. The funders were not involved in planning, design or writing of the protocol.