Construction of service users in strategic collaboration including mental health and social services, and service user organisations

Abstract

ABSTRACT Terms used to refer to people who use welfare services have been under change and are under continuous debate. Here, seven analytical categories from terms used in 40 mental health strategic collaboration meetings including human service organisations representatives and service user organisations representatives are analysed to study the construction of the service user in mental health. The categories were set up in relation to characteristics, how and when they were used, and who was using them. Results showed that service user representatives and professionals shared some categories; some categories differed in how they were used and had dissimilar starting points, while one group exclusively used some. The use of categories could also be divided into a collective and an individual perspective. Participants agreed on service users having complex needs but not essentially different. Service user representatives emphasised a structural perspective, a society unequipped to meet service users’ needs while respecting their citizenship. Professionals more often used the individual perspective, where the troubles service users faced were put on an individual level. Their categories were better established and thus more resilient to resistance. Most prominent were issues on service users’ independence, accountability, and collective or individual perspective.