Negotiating the coresearcher mandate – service users’ experiences of doing collaborative research on mental health

Abstract

Purpose: Traditionally, the voices of service users have been silent in research into mental health issues. A Norwegian research network, however, recognizes the importance of involving service users as coresearchers and initiated a training program in research methodology and design intended to empower them as active participants in research projects. In this article, we explore how these coresearchers with a mental health service user background experience their participation in projects as well as in attending the training: What is it like being a service user coresearcher in collaborative studies on issues in mental health? How do coresearchers negotiate their roles and mandate? Method: We used focus groups as our data collection method, transcribed the group discussions verbatim, and analyzed the transcriptions using qualitative methodology. We then took the preliminary analyses back to the participants for discussion, auditing, and reanalysis. Results: We identified themes that represent important social processes around which the participants developed a consensual understanding: self-definition, constructive differentiation and negotiations. Conclusion: Our findings generate hypotheses on how participatory research into mental health issues can be fruitfully organized, in a way that empowers service users to active and constructive participation.Implications for RehabilitationParticipatory research on issues in mental health holds potential for empowering service users.Collaborating with service users in research puts weight on the lived experiences of mental distress and on the expertise of the first person perspective.Organizing a formal training and peer group context in this kind of research can contribute to the service user coresearchers process of defining their own mandate in the research process as well as to help them constructively differentiate themselves from the roles of other researchers.