A Case Study of Co-production Within a Mental Health Recovery College Dementia Course: Perspectives of A Person With Dementia, Their Family Supporter and Mental Health Staff

Abstract

BackgroundUndertaking co-production as a power-sharing way to improve mental health dementia services remains uncommon, suggesting opportunities to apply knowledge from lived experience of people with dementia, may often be missed. One barrier is stigma, assuming people with progressive cognitive impairment cannot manage this level of participation, support peers nor offer a “valid” perspective.PurposeThis paper shares knowledge gained from a service evaluation that explored various experiences of a person with dementia, their family supporter and mental health staff, involved in co-producing a course about “living well” with dementia, within a mental health Recovery College.DesignA qualitative, case study approach used semi-structured interviewing and inductive thematic analysis.FindingsCo-production activities generated a shared sense of positivity, pride and privilege, highlighting positive effects in breaking down the “them and us” barriers common in traditional healthcare professional-service user relationships. Each individual had both something to offer and something to gain during the process. Staff identified challenges in the co-production process; in that balancing all the voices during meetings could be complex at times, and the process overall required considerable time commitment.ConclusionTaking part in co-production at an appropriate level and with peer support is a relational activity seen to be valuable in powerfully, yet gently, challenging stigma and assumptions around dementia. Findings show that while the process of co-production requires time and dedication, there is overall value in involving people living with dementia both in co-production and in peer support. This provided a straightforward and beneficial means to inclusively improve post-diagnosis support and care quality within a memory service.

Building an initial understanding of UK Recovery College dementia courses: a national survey of Recovery College and memory services staff

“…The co-production of the courses with people with dementia was viewed as a strength. These findings resonate with a recent qualitative case study exploring the experiences of people with dementia who undertook a Recovery College dementia course, where co-production and peer-to-peer learning emerged as important aspects of the support received (West et al , 2022). Co-production activities promoted “breaking down the ‘them and us’ barriers common in traditional health-care professional-service user relationships”.…”

Recovery in Mind: A Recovery College's journey through the Covid‐19 pandemic

“…A Canadian initiative is currently co‐producing a user‐led framework for evaluating RCs 26 . Increasingly, RC research is diversifying, exploring the experiences of students with specific diagnoses and studying the impacts of specific RC courses 21,27,28 . One of the first pieces of RC research to have explored the effects of the Covid‐19 pandemic and the move online is that of Rapisarda et al 29 Their study found online RCs to be particularly effective at combatting anxiety, and advocates RCs as a cost‐effective and accessible public mental health response to crisis situations 29 …”

Operationalising the Recovery College model with people living with dementia: a realist review

“…Existing clinical relationships between mental health staff co-producing Recovery College dementia courses and people living with dementia were used to recruit co-producers with lived experience (Cheffey et al., 2013 ; West et al., 2022 ). Staff approached people they considered would benefit from work that moved beyond the current therapeutic relationship to one where the person actively applies their skills, experience, and knowledge to co-producing a course (CMOC5).…”