Being a service user and a social work academic: balancing expert identities

Exploring the Mental Health and Spiritual Recovery of an Expert-by-Experience: A Discussion of the Unique Contribution Social Workers Can Make to Support This Journey

“…Furthermore, in order to protect the mental wellbeing of the first author, she was able to address any distress or concerns with the second author with whom she was in frequent contact during the writing of this article. However, being accustomed to reflecting on her own personal experience of mental ill-health (Fox, 2016), the first author did not experience any negative effects from participating in the research and writing process. Moreover, in accordance with both the ethical concerns identified above, the first author led the reflection process, and with support from the second author, co-created the model of spiritual recovery.…”

“…She then experienced a process of refinement by reconnecting with her spiritual beliefs and she seeks to utilise these experiences to make a positive contribution to society. This experience enables the first author to realise that she is no longer the wounded healer, but has become an expert-by-experience who can use this knowledge to directly enrich her own life and indirectly enhance her teaching and practice (Fox, 2016).…”

“…This article explores how professionals, particularly social workers, can address the spiritual needs of users of mental health care through reflection on a narrative which describes the first authors' own experiences of spiritual and mental health recovery. Narrative story-telling (Riessman and Quinney, 2005) is adopted as the methodological framework for our work because it enables rich reflection on the individual experience of the first author and is commensurate with social work values which highlight the primacy of service user experience (Fox, 2016).…”

Perspectives of experts-by-experience: an exploration of lived experience involvement in social work education

“…The importance of incorporating the voice of people with lived experiences is essential in the development and delivery of all aspects of social work. Service users' contributions are fundamental to the development of social work theory and practice (Videmsek, 2017); and the validity of their knowledge is of increasing relevance to social work as we acknowledge their expertise-by-experience (EbE) (Fox, 2016). Recent developments to services in the UK incorporating personalisation and co-production have provided an important catalyst for moves towards empowering people in the adult social care sector (Hatton, 2017, pp.…”

“…155-156) Increasingly, service users are involved in mental health research, (Pinfold et al, 2015), and have a long history of participating, designing and influencing services (Rose et al, 1998). The experiences and perspectives of people with lived experience is of growing importance in all health and social care contexts (Fox, 2016;Goldberg et al, 2020;Mazanderani et al, 2020).…”