1. Assessing the evidence from a service user and survivor perspective
Re-imagining professionalism in mental health: toward co-production Seminar 2: Enacting co-production
Is transformational co-production possible in mainstream mental health services?
Assessing the evidence from a service user and survivor perspective
St Catherine’s College, University of Oxford, 17th February 2016
Dr. Sarah Carr, Associate Professor of Mental Health Research, Middlesex University London

2. ‘No More Throwaway People’: ‘The transformation of power and control’
Co-production has the potential to alter ‘the conventional distinctions between producers and consumers, professionals and clients, providers and recipients, givers and takers’
‘hell-raising is a critical part of co-production’
(Cahn 2008)

3. ‘Conspiracy of Hope’
‘Do we understand that people with psychiatric disabilities possess valuable knowledge and expertise as a result of their experience?
Have we created environments in which it is possible for staff people to be human beings with human hearts?
Do we work in a system which rewards passivity, obedience and compliance?
Have we embraced the concept of the “dignity of risk” and the “right to failure”?
Are there opportunities within the mental health system for people to truly improve their lives?’
(Deegan, 1987)

4. Testing, testing: Service user and survivor mental health reform and revolution
Empowerment
Personal recovery
Service user and survivor participation
Direct payments

5. Testing, testing: Service user and survivor mental health reform and revolution
Responses to challenge and expression
Institutional rules, invited spaces and resistance to change
Medical and professional role dominance
Co-option and control
Service user and survivor collectivism and leadership

6. Co-production challenge #1 The Total Institution: The mainstream mental health service legacy

7. Co-production challenge #2 The power of the psychiatric paradigm
‘They couldn’t see how their well-funded services run by experts squeezed the resourcefulness out of mad people, their families and their communities’
(O’Hagan, 2014)
‘Their processing in the psychiatric system is related not only to them being seen as defective, but also frequently dissident, non-conformist and different in their values’
(Beresford, 2009)

8. Co-production in mainstream mental health services: The ‘meta-challenge’?
‘…to a much greater degree their plight was due to the systems and structures erected for dealing with madness, which turned people into rigidly dichotomized patients (aliens) and psychiatrists (alienists).’
(Porter, 1987)

9. Thank you
Dr. Sarah Carr, Associate Professor of Mental Health Research, Middlesex University London