— Learnings from doing a co-produced evaluation of the Independent Mental Health Advocacy (IMHA) service by consumer evaluators and RMIT University academics 2018 Service User Academia Symposium 16th November 2018 Matthew Dale matthew.dale@rmit.edu.au Brendan Johnson brendan.johnson@rmit.edu.au Susan Alvarez-Vasquez s3591204@student.rmit.edu.au To create Em dash above headline: Same size and weight as the headline and set using a soft return. PC: Em dash (—): Alt+Ctrl+ - (minus) Mac: Em dash (—): Shift+Alt/Option+hyphen Centre for Social and Global Studies

Definition of co-production co-design, including planning of services co-decision making in the allocation of resources co-delivery of services, including the role of volunteers in providing the service co-evaluation of the service opportunity to produce academic research papers Löffler, E. (2009) ‘A future research agenda for co-production: overview paper’, in Local Authorities & Research Councils’ Initiative (2010) Co-production: A series of commissioned reports, Swindon: Research Councils UK.

What is the Independent Mental Health Advocacy (IMHA) service? Relational Independent Representational Non-legal Advocacy A relational model of independent representational non-legal advocacy

Why is IMHA being evaluated? Legal Aid funded inquiry into how the IMHA service was performing after first two years of operation to ensure appropriateness of funding. To see how the current advocacy service can be improved and made more efficient and effective

Consumer Evaluators involvement in IMHA evaluation Design of the evaluation plan with the Senior Consumer Consultant at IMHA Assisting in the design of both consumer and health clinician interviews and surveys Assisting RMIT academics in face to face as well as telephone interviews with both consumers and health clinicians Providing feedback and opinion on various documents used during the evaluation Collection of data and analysis for evaluation

Benefits of doing a co-produced evaluation Consumer perspective is valuable Contributing a range of strengths, knowledge, understanding, backgrounds and abilities Staff having access to a range of different networks and resources Break down the barriers between people who use services and professionals Facilitate services by helping organisation's to become agents for change rather than just being service providers

Challenges of doing a co-produced evaluation Difference of opinion on some elements of work Uneven sharing of responsibilities for doing evaluation Dividing up of workloads- including the clarity of each members role and the rationale behind these decisions Opportunity to be engaged with research can be hampered by availability, as consumer have a variety priorities- from staying well to employment

Lessons to take away from co-production Good results can be produced and are possible A need to be organised and communicate well with all members of the team, including when members come and go Role clarity allows each team member to prepare as required, especially if tasks are new or unfamiliar Consumers are often looking for opportunities to upskill and training if available should be offered

— QUESTIONS??? email:matthew.dale@rmit.edu.au email:brendan.johnson@rmit.edu.au email:s3591204@student.rmit.edu.au To create Em dash above headline: Same size and weight as the headline and set using a soft return. PC: Em dash (—): Alt+Ctrl+ - (minus) Mac: Em dash (—): Shift+Alt/Option+hyphen Centre for Social and Global Studies