Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Using an Action Research Approach to Involving Service Users in the Assessment of Professional Competence

Bailey, D.

Authors

D. Bailey



Abstract

This paper reports on a piece of action research that has involved people who use mental health services in systematically providing feedback from a user perspective on participants' assessed work completed for one module of a masters' training programme in mental health. In an attempt to improve professional practice and include people who were accessing mental health services in so doing, it outlines how users were trained to provide feedback and the training methods employed. The findings summarise the kind of issues users raised in their feedback to participants about the evidence professionals provided to demonstrate their learning from the training programme. A focus group interview with professionals provides a contrasting insight into the participants' experience of having their work commented upon from a user perspective. The paper draws on the experience of a five-year external evaluation of an interdisciplinary programme in community mental health at Birmingham University in the UK which has highlighted the involvement of people who use mental health services as a particular innovation in the design, delivery and evaluation of the curriculum.

Citation

Bailey, D. (2005). Using an Action Research Approach to Involving Service Users in the Assessment of Professional Competence. European Journal of Social Work, 8(2), 165-179. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691450500085240

Journal Article Type Article
Publication Date 2005
Deposit Date Mar 21, 2007
Journal European Journal of Social Work
Print ISSN 1369-1457
Electronic ISSN 1468-2664
Publisher Taylor and Francis Group
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 8
Issue 2
Pages 165-179
DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/13691450500085240
Keywords Action research, Mental health, User involvement.
Publisher URL http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/routledg/eurswk/2005/00000008/00000002/art00004