Using participatory action research in a community-based initiative addressing complex mental health needs

Abstract

The emergent themes provide clues as to how complexity is constructed and interpreted across the system of involved agencies and interest groups. The implications these findings have for the development and evaluation of this community capacity-building project were examined from the perspective of constructing interventions that address both top-down and bottom-up processes.

Applying experience-based co-design with vulnerable populations: Lessons from a systematic review of methods to involve patients, families and service providers in child and youth mental health service improvement

“…5 The majority of studies frame themselves as some form of PR. [46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55] It should be noted that in some cases, different stages or dimensions of the same larger research project where published in separate articles by different authors. For example, the articles by Read-Searl, Happell, and Moxham [50][51][52] pertain to the same research project, as do the two articles by Day.…”

“…For example, all of the studies sought to improve the interface between users and service providers. 5,[46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57] Additionally, eight studies 5,[46][47][48][50][51][52][53][54]56,57 looked at the whole service rather than specific aspects of it, and seven studies 5,[49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57] involved all stages of the EBCD process. Only five of the studies 5,46-48,50-52 looked directly at improving service experience, as two studies developed tools to assist service improvement 53,56,57 and three other studies focused on examining service delivery, which indirectly provided insights into experience.…”

Enhancing health‐care workers' understanding and thinking about people living with co‐occurring mental health and substance use issues through consumer‐led training

“…A range of barriers to access treatment and follow‐up have been identified by both consumers and service providers . Examples of such barriers include the stigma associated with living with co‐occurring illicit drug use and mental health problems; challenges associated with responding to complex and concurrent vulnerabilities; a lack of holistic or comprehensive services; a lack of appropriate services; poor service user knowledge of available services; inadequate referral processes and pathways; overly restrictive intake requirements; and service providers' judgemental assumptions regarding people living with dual diagnosis …”

“…Consumers, health practitioners and policymakers all stress the need for further education of primary health‐care workers (including reception staff) regarding dual diagnosis, to increase understanding and reduce stigma, judgemental attitudes and assumptions associated with dual diagnosis . Indeed, improving the way people with dual diagnosis are perceived by health‐care workers is seen as necessary to enhance service responses in favour of this consumer group, as well as this consumer groups' experiences of such services.…”

Mental health care roles of non-medical primary health and social care services

“…Efforts to increase the capacity of community‐based specialist mental health services have been hampered by the complexity of problems experienced by people with mental disorders (Andrews et al . 2001, Herrman & Harvey 2005, Knightbridge et al . 2006) and workforce shortages in key specialist mental health disciplines (Huxley et al .…”