EQUIPED TO SUCCEED: A CASE EXAMPLE OF SERVICE USER AND CARER INVOLVEMENT FROM STUDY INCEPTION THROUGH TO DISSEMINATION ON THE EQUIP PROGRAMME GRANT.

摘要

Background: Service user and carer involvement has been central throughout the EQUIP programme grant, an National Institute for Health Research U.K. funded study to enhance the quality of user involved care planning in mental health services. Objectives: This presentation will provide a case example of user involvement in action, sharing the team's research and experiences of developing a co-production approach. Methods: From the programme development stage, we developed and ran an interactive research methods course to enable both users and carers and academics to work meaningfully together. We identified a range of roles for service users and carers including as formal co- applicants on the grant, lead authors of peer reviewed papers, presenters at conferences, developers of patient-mediated materials, as well as core members of the research, programme management and steering group teams. Service users and carers were trained to co-deliver mental healthcare professional training in the EQUIP randomised controlled trial. Results: Key reflections include the importance of: having adequate time and resources to develop good patient and public involvement; negotiating and agreeing expectations in advance with lay members of the research team; and the need for continued reflection and evaluation of the appropriateness and efficacy of different involvement approaches. Conclusion: The EQUIP team used novel approaches to public and patient involvement in research. We hope that the identified strengths and weakness of our approaches are useful to other researchers.