Survey update what next for mental health and co-production

Mind and nef have recently published a literature review on how coproduction is being applied in mental health settings, which you can find here.

The natural question that follows from this publication is: “What next?” To help answer that question, a survey was put together by some folks* with a real interest in this and a little bit of time.

This post briefly gives an updated on the types of responses received so far.

In total, there have been 83 responses so far, which is pretty good going. Just over a third of responses are from people who identify as having a mental health problem. The next biggest response comes from mental health providers in the voluntary and community sector (15%) and then User-Led Organisations (12%).

The biggest barriers to coproduction in mental health are felt so far to be the following:

• Lack of engagement from people who deliver services (24%)
• Lack of understanding of the concept of coproduction (23%)
• Lack of commissioner support (12%)
• Other answers regularly mention lack of resources, including both time and money and insufficient recognition of people’s contributions/resources.

To take forward coproduction in mental health, the following so far were felt to be the most useful:

• A network of people specifically interested in mental health and coproduction (25%)
• Training to help understand what coproduction is, the difference it makes and how to do it (13%)
• A campaign to promote coproduction in mental health (13%).

Other than a notable number of respondents who think all policy areas should be prioritised, people who have completed the questionnaire so far think that health (46%) is the policy area that should be prioritised for mental health and coproduction, followed by social care (16%). Very few have mentioned, for example, employment (4%), welfare (0%) or criminal justice (3%).

This is all really useful information so far, and want to make sure there are as many views shared as possible. As such, the survey will be open until the end of January. If you, an organisation or someone / an organisation you know might be interested in completing the survey, please do pass it on.

Mental health and coproduction survey: https://surveymonkey.com/s/MHcoproduction

*Paola Pierri (Mind), Julia Slay and Lucie Stephens (nef), Shahana Ramsden (National Coproduction Advisory Group), Rich Watts (NDTi)

 

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Regular #dpulo discussion on Twitter

Every week, @timolloyd runs a really interesting Twitter discussion on a particular topic around social media and health / DH-stuff, using the hashtag #nhssm. It’s at a set time each week, and lots of people with common interests in the health service and how social media can be used in it have a lively debate.

My hunch is that this sort of thing would be particularly useful for people who work in disabled people’s user-led organisations (DPULOs) too. It would also be incredibly useful for me in my role as part of the Strengthening DPULOs Programme to understand further and better current issues DPULOs are facing and what we may be able to do about that.

I’m therefore proposing to run a Twitter discussion for DPULOs on a regular basis and at a regular time, with a chosen theme / area for discussion each time, probably using the hashtag #dpulo. I’ll work up some aims/objectives to be a bit clearer about it, but I think they would broadly be as follows:

• To enable people to share the issues they’re facing and solutions they or others have come across
• To enable people to share useful bits and pieces of information / publications / resources they’ve come across
• To provide a level of peer support for people who work in disabled people’s user-led organisations.

Do people think this is a good idea? If so, it would be useful to get people’s perspectives in particular on what time and day it should be on, and what frequency we hold it.

I’ve thrown together a quick survey to gather answers on the practical side of things. Please also use the comments below to leave any thoughts you have on the aims/objectives of these discussions, and to suggest topics/themes we might want to cover.

You can access the survey here: Regular #dpulo discussion on Twitter survey

Let me know what you think!

I’ll take on board all comments and thoughts etc. until mid-October and aim to start the Twitter #dpulo discussions from then on.