Service user and carer participation in old age psychiatry

This thesis describes thirteen published works which constitute an evolving programme of research into service user and carer participation in old age psychiatry. They share the common objective of extending knowledge and understanding of methodologies, benefits and challenges of service user and carer participation in old age psychiatry services. The publications contribute to knowledge in three areas. The copying of letters to users and carers, and requests for their feedback on the practice, was described as part of routine practice in old age psychiatry: this research addresses the area of „users and carers as recipients of communication‟. „Users and carers as subjects of consultation‟ is addressed by several publications: an evaluation of users‟ experience of electro-convulsive therapy and later development of a method of integrating feedback from users into practice; a similar method was applied regionally in service improvement in order to access users‟ and carers‟ views and use them to identify areas for improvement work, and nationally by a professional organisation to inform and develop its work programme. The third area of contribution is that of „users and carers as agents in control‟ and this is addressed
in an initiative in higher education where users and carers were agents of control in designing, delivering and evaluating an MSc module on user and carer experience. The contribution of the publications is related to four overall objectives: ways in which users and carers participate in old age psychiatry services; the benefits and drawbacks of user and carer participation in old age psychiatry services; ways of conceptualising user and carer participation in old age psychiatry; and finally, potential areas for future research in user and carer participation in old age psychiatry.