Outcomes of a co‐facilitation skills training programme for mental health service users, family members, and clinicians: the EOLAS project

Abstract

Health policy is increasingly advocating for involvement of service users and family members in service development. In the present study, we evaluated the impact of a 4-day education programme in co-facilitation skills on clinician and peer (service users and family members) knowledge, confidence, and subsequent experience as co-facilitators. The programme was designed to train peers and clinicians as co-facilitators on a clinician and peer-led information programme for people experiencing mental health problems. The study employed a mixed-methods design involving a pre-post survey with 128 participants, and follow-up qualitative interviews with a sample of 17 participants. To examine changes in levels of knowledge and confidence in facilitating from time 1 (T1) to time 2 (T2), paired sample t-tests were conducted, and thematic analysis was conducted on the interviews. The programme had a statistically-significant positive impact on participants' knowledge, confidence, and skills, with no significant difference between the facilitator groups (i.e. service user, family member, and clinician) in terms of their improvement at the end of the training, indicating that all groups benefited equally from the training. A majority of participants reported a high level of preparedness as co-facilitators and an open and respectful approach towards each other's expertise, and many continued to gain skills and develop their confidence as they co-facilitated the 8-week EOLAS programme ('eolas' is the Irish word for knowledge). The findings also provide evidence of the acceptability and feasibility of the programme, and appears to be the first detailed study reported on a programme of this nature.

Evaluation of a national training programme to support engagement in mental health services: Learning enablers and learning gains

“…The views of service users, their families and carers are central to the design and delivery of contemporary mental health services (Government of Ireland, ); therefore, programme facilitators need to create a learning environment which facilitates meaningful engagement. Higgins et al () also presented similar findings in the evaluation of a co‐produced training intervention. Participants in the present study valued the wide range of teaching and learning strategies employed over the course and experienced first‐hand the difference between didactic teaching and facilitation.…”

Key stakeholders’ views, experiences and expectations of patient and public involvement in healthcare professions’ education: a qualitative study

“…Wykurz and Kelly concluded from their systematic review, that when patients are trained, supported and paid they could become colleagues in the education of healthcare professionals rather than an educational resource (29)(30)(31). The need for support and payment was deemed important by all study participants.…”

“I came, I saw, I conquered”: reflections on participating in a PhotoVoice project

“…Similar to that of PhotoVoice, the principles underpinning the EOLAS programmes are empowerment, collaboration and advocacy. While the EOLAS programmes have undergone evaluation, using both traditional quantitative and qualitative methods, with EOLAS service users and family members being interviewed at every stage of evaluation (Higgins et al, 2018;Higgins et al, 2019a;Higgins et al, 2019b), it was important to the EOLAS team that the inclusion of service users and family members extend beyond that of being research participants, to become collaborators in the research process. Thus, it was envisaged that the PhotoVoice methodology would facilitate a greater collaborative and empowering relationship between both the EOLAS researchers and participants.…”