Consumer involvement and guiding frameworks in mental healthcare: An integrative literature review

Abstract

Perspectives of healthcare have, in past decades, focused more on active citizenship, human rights and empowerment. Healthcare consumer involvement as a concept is still unstructured and consumers have no apparent opportunities to participate in their care processes. The focus is often on the expertise of professionals, even if mental health consumers are willing to become involved and have sufficient decisional capacity. The aim of this integrative literature review was to construct an understanding of consumer perceptions and guiding frameworks of consumer involvement. There was no previous synthesis of mental health consumer perceptions combined with guiding frameworks. An integrative review methodology was employed, following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. The quality of the 18 studies included was analysed with the Whittemore and Knafl approach. By following Braun and Clarke's guidelines, an inductive thematic analysis was conducted to collate the themes from the selected papers. Mental health consumers' perceptions of involvement included expectations of person-centred care, such as respect, dignity, equal interaction, supportive environments and being part of a community. This research did not find any single established framework to give clear guidelines for consumer involvement in mental healthcare, but similar determinants describing various frameworks were uncovered. This review also shows how the terminology has changed throughout the years. The perceptions of mental health consumers need to be considered to enable the implementation of person-centredness from guidelines through to practice. Paying more attention to the education of professional mental health caregivers and the involvement of mental health consumers in their care provides better opportunities to co-develop successful mental health services and recovery processes.

Keywords: consumer involvement; experience; framework; mental health; social interaction.