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The lived experiences of mental health consumers as board and committee members in the mental health field

University of British Columbia

The current trend in the mental health field is to involve consumers, that is, people with a mental illness who have utilized mental health services, in the development, planning, implementation, and evaluation of mental health services. This type of participation is encouraged through consumer involvement on boards and committees within the mental health field. Given the lack of awareness and understanding in this area, the purpose of this study was to explore and describe the lived experiences of consumers as board and/or committee members within the mental health field. The study employed a phenomenological paradigm to explore and describe consumer involvement. The data was comprised of 18 in-depth interviews with 9 consumers who have been involved with boards Or committees within the mental health field for over one year. The data analysis of the verbatim transcripts occurred simultaneously with the data collection. The data analysis also continued into the formal analytic phase involving the extraction of meaning units and themes of experience. In the end seven major themes and four subthemes emerged and offered a portrayal of consumer involvement on boards and committees. The seven themes and four subthemes are: first, the experience of making a contribution or helping others through boards and committees; second, the experience of being responsible or accountable, subtheme, of the difficulty in being responsible, third; the experience of a power differential or inequality between consumers and non-consumers on boards and committees, subtheme of the experience of being assertive for female participants; fourth, the experience of positive outcomes such as friendship, empowerment, and increased self esteem; fifth, negative experiences as part of the process of boards and committees such as disempowerment and frustration; sixth, the experience of feeling separate or different, subtheme of the experience of feeling uncomfortable when first joining boards and committees and then gradually settling in; seventh, the experience of stress and exhaustion, subtheme of the participants means of coping with the experience of stress, pressure, and frustration. The participants also provided insight into the shortage of consumers on boards and committee and suggestions for facilitating consumer involvement. Overall, the explicated themes and subthemes illustrate the experiences of mental health consumers on boards and committees. Implications for consumer involvement in terms of the facilitation, evaluation, and research are offered. General implications for the field of mental is to increase awareness and understanding of consumers' experiences and to facilitate participation on boards and committees.

Thesis/Dissertation

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2009-01-30

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/4017

Counselling Psychology

University of British Columbia

UBCV

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