Learning from service user and carer involvement in clinical psychology training

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to build a theoretical model of how and what clinical psychologists learn from service user and carer involvement in their training. Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative research design was adopted, and verbatim transcripts of semi-structured interviews conducted with 12 clinical psychologists were analysed using grounded theory methodology. Findings – Findings indicated that clinical psychologists learned from service user and carer involvement in a variety of ways and a preliminary model was proposed, encompassing four main categories: “mechanisms of learning”, “relational and contextual factors facilitating learning”, “relational and contextual factors hindering learning” and “impact”. Research limitations/implications – Further research is required to establish to what extent the current findings may be transferrable to learning from service user and carer involvement in the context of educating professionals from other disciplines. Additionally, participants had limited experiences of carer involvement, and more research in this area specifically would be useful. Practical implications – This study advocates for service user and carer involvement in clinical psychology training, and specific recommendations are discussed, including service user perspectives. Originality/value – Service user and carer involvement has become mandatory in Health Care Professional Council-approved training programmes for mental health professionals, yet if and how learning occurs is poorly understood in this context. This study makes an important contribution in evaluating outcomes of service user and carer involvement in clinical psychology training by advancing theoretical understanding of the learning processes involved. The authors are unaware of similar work.

The experience of learning from mental health service users and carers

“…Rush (2008) proposes that the emotion aroused by the impact of the personal story leads directly to reflection and attempts to make sense of the experience. For Schreur et al (2015), reflection is also promoted by the emotion produced by hearing the personal story. In all three models, role change is also present and in both Schreur et al ’s model and the model developed here, there is an importance placed on novelty or uncertainty.…”

“…Rush (2008) proposes that attitude change precedes resolving to take action and then taking action. Schreur et al (2015) conceptualise increased awareness of and motivation to engage with service user issues as one of the positive outcomes of the reflective process. There are clearly processes that occur in the room that lead to changes in attitude straight away.…”

“…One model of learning from mental health service users has been developed recently, specifically exploring involvement in clinical psychology training in the UK. Schreur et al (2015) used a grounded theory approach to explore clinical psychology trainees’ and recently trained clinical psychologists’ experiences of mental health service user involvement in their training. In total, 12 participants were interviewed individually, and the transcripts of the interviews coded to develop key themes and a model of the impact of involvement.…”

Tame clients: an evaluation of service users’ and trainee clinical psychologists’ perspective of service user involvement in teaching

“…Despite these difficulties, research does show that involving service users in the training of clinical psychologists can positively impact trainees’ learning and attitudes, such that the “us and them” barrier is broken down (Harper et al ., 2003), awareness of service users’ perceptions of services are increased (Tickle and Davison, 2008) and academic learning moves into the “real life” domain (Schreur et al ., 2015). However, each of these studies focusses on the trainee/student experience and does not report on the experience of involvement from the service users’ perspective.…”

Social policy first hand: an international introduction to participatory social welfare

“…This could also incorrectly imply that service users are a homogeneous group. Research into clinical psychology training found that increased contact between mental health professionals and service users in the context of equal status may reduce stigmatic cognitive separations of 'us' and 'them' (Schreur, Lea, and Goodbody 2015). Moore acknowledges the progress made in service user involvement as a whole and suggests changes which could increase the value of their input and reduce the risk of tokenism.…”