Finding the personal in the clinical psychology swamp

Abstract

If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -The purpose of this paper is to explore the interface between the professional and personal, and particularly personal realities reflected in the Equality Act (2010), within a clinical psychology training context.Design/methodology/approach -An innovative action research process involving discussions, seminars and focus groups. The first author was a trainee on the programme and had been an informal carer. The other two authors are programme staff with service user experience. In the cycle presented here, six staff members and 14 trainees attended five 50-minute reflective group sessions. Data were collected by focus group and analysed using thematic analysis.Findings -Participants voiced continuing uncertainty about the personal-professional interface alongside increased understanding of ways to enact it. Parenthood, class and mental health were identified as important domains and competition between these emerged as a theme.Research limitations/implications -The reflective groups and focus group have contributed to a process of change in relation to service user involvement and trainee learning. Transferability of the findings to other programmes is discussed and further research is required.Practical implications -The authors would advocate for partnerships between trainees, staff and service users as a means of learning, researching and change within mental health training.Originality/value -The authors are unaware of any other similar work: the unusual collaboration by the authors, the use of action research and the adoption of reflective groups within the process is unique.

The experience of learning from mental health service users and carers

“…Many studies report positive benefits of service-user-led teaching including challenging misconceptions about people with mental health difficulties (Byrne et al , 2013), developing enhanced empathy (Wood and Wilson-Barnett, 1999), working with the values of clients rather than the values of the service providers (Khoo et al , 2004) and increased awareness of the wider societal and cultural influences on mental health (Maher et al , 2017). Furthermore, we are becoming increasingly aware that students and educators may themselves have experience of mental health services and/or of caring in a personal capacity and that teaching that bridges the gap between someone’s personal and professional identities can be powerful and a useful forum for learning (Wood et al , 2013). However, there are also difficulties and barriers within service user and carer-led teaching; not all students benefit from and value being taught by service users (Felton and Stickley, 2004), it can be too challenging and, therefore, learning does not take place (Grundy et al , 2017; Ikkos, 2005) and some students prefer to be taught by senior practitioners (Haeney et al , 2007).…”