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Service user involvement: what can we learn from mental health services
Alison Cameron, Service User Governor, Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust, UK
Abstract
The overall aim of the presentation is to provide those involved in Smoking Cessation services with an insight into what may be achieved from service user involvement based on the speaker’s experiences as an active service user within the Mental Health system. It will define the range of activities falling under the broad banner of ‘user involvement’ from the micro level of individual consultation and decision making to the macro level of active participation in service development. The barriers to meaningful involvement will be highlighted and some potential solutions suggested as to how these may be overcome. The presentation will conclude by asserting that a genuine commitment to and investment in service user involvement can make a real contribution towards improving outcomes both for the individual service user and the services themselves.
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About the presenter
Alison Cameron graduated from Aberdeen University with a degree in Russian. This led her to forge a successful career in International Relations for which she won several major awards notably for her humanitarian work in the Chernobyl zone. Her career was cut short when she became ill with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after her involvement in an accident in which her colleagues were killed. She received and continues to receive, treatment from Mental Health Services within Kensington and Chelsea. She has found that her long journey back to recovery enabled her to build up a wealth of knowledge about mental illness and its treatment. She became aware that service users have a unique insight into the realities of obtaining effective treatment and resolved to put her experiences to good use. She is now a passionate advocate of service user involvement at all levels from peer support to active participation in service development both for the potential positive effects on the individual user as well as on the services in which they are engaged. She gives frequent talks on her experiences to practitioners and service users, has contributed to numerous publications, sits on her Borough’s Dual Diagnosis Steering Group and runs support groups for people with co-existing Mental Health and Substance Misuse issues. In 2007, she was elected as a Service User Governor for Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust and is fully committed to ensuring that the Trust listens to and acts upon the views of its members.
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