Service user and carer involvement in social work training: a long and winding road?

Abstract

In recent years the imperative to involve service users and carers at every level of care, service and policy development has been extended to include involving users and carers in the training of health and social care professionals. Guidance on how this is to be achieved in practice is, however, limited. This paper describes work undertaken to explore how an Approved Social Work Programme in the north of England could involve service users and carers more fully and develop an integrated approach to service user and carer involvement in this and other social work programmes. Following a review of the literature in this area, the results of a series of meetings with individual and groups of service users and carers are presented, together with a survey of ASW programmes. It then goes on to consider the implications for service user and carer involvement in the new social work degree.

Innovative Approaches to Involving Service Users in Palliative Care Social Work Education

“…Typically such involvement has entailed service users and carers contributing to aspects of teaching and programme delivery (Bolan et al, 2000;Citizens As Trainers Group et al, 2004;Molyneux and Irvine, 2004), assessing practice learning (Shardlow Social Work Education 5 and Doel, 1993;Shennan, 1998), providing feedback in live observations (Crisp et al, 2006), co-facilitating workshops (Manthorpe, 2000), sharing personal testimonies (Elliot et al, 2005), and being involved in programme management and assessment boards (Molyneux and Irvine, 2004).…”

How do managers and leaders in the National Health Service and social care respond to service user involvement in mental health services in both its traditional and emergent forms? The ENSUE study

“…55,[57][58][59] A significant number of professionals had experience in involving SUs in service evaluation, although they were more likely than SUs to report a positive impact of this form of engagement. This is not surprising, as the results of evaluation initiatives -such as the national patient survey -are rarely fed back to patients, and professionals may be more aware of the outcomes of service improvement initiatives.…”

Ethical Dilemmas are not Simply Black and White

“…To ensure participation on a meaningful and respectful basis, considerable time and resources need to be set aside when engaging service users and carers in the development of social work education (Reynolds & Read, 1999;Forrest et al, 2000;Molyneux & Irvine, 2004;Humphreys, 2005;Basset et al, 2006: Stevens andTanner, 2006). We took a lot of time to resolve the issues on payment, acknowledging that participants' contribution should be recognised in a respectful way.…”