Peer support workers in co-production and co-creation in public mental health and addiction services: Protocol for a scoping review

Kristina Bakke Aakerblom,Ottar Ness

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0248558

Abstract

Worldwide, there is a growing interest to employ people with lived experiences in health and social services. Particularly in mental health and addiction services, individuals with lived experience of mental health problems enter the workplace as peer support workers (PSW´s). Their aim in the services is to bring in the perspective of service users in interactive processes at the micro and macro levels. The services´ ability to exploit the knowledge from PSW´s lived experiences will influence both the content and quality of the services, its effectiveness and its capacity to innovate and change. The concepts of co-production and co-creation are used to describe these interactive processes in the services in the literature. While co-production is aimed at improving individual services, co-creation seeks to develop service systems. This scoping review aims to provide an overview of the research status of PSW´s different involvement, in co-production and co-creation, in public mental health and addiction services. Studies describing PSW´s involvement in co-production and co-creation will be contrasted and compared. Knowledge about PSW´s involvement in co-production and co-creation is vital for understanding and further developing these interactive processes with PSW´s. The studies reviewed will describe PSW´s different types of involvement in co-production and co-creation in public mental health and addiction services or across organizational and institutional boundaries. The research question is: How are peer support workers involved in co-production and co-creation in public mental health and addiction services, and what are the described outcomes? Literature searches are conducted in Medline, PsycINFO, Embase, Oria, WorldCat, Google Scholar, Scopus, Academic Search Elite, Cinahl, and Web of Science, from the inception of each database to January 4, 2021. Expected results are that PSW´s are often described as a frontline worker who spends most of their working hours in a joint effort to co-produce with service users. Fewer studies describe PSW´s involved in interactive processes to re-design or transform public services systems. It is anticipated that this scoping review will increase the knowledge of the services' abilities to exploit PSW´s expertise and inform policy and research.

Highlights

In public mental health and addiction services, an increasing number of individuals with lived experience of mental health problems enter the workplace as peer support workers (PSWs)
While co-production is aimed at improving individual services, co-creation seeks to develop service systems
Research indicates that PSWs most often are involved in the direct delivery of services

Summary

Introduction

In public mental health and addiction services, an increasing number of individuals with lived experience of mental health problems enter the workplace as peer support workers (PSWs). The research literature indicates that deployment of PSWs leads to increased service user participation [2], active involvement and empowers service users This makes the services more democratic and lead to realizing mental health as a human right [1]. Understanding service usersperspectives, and translating it into policies and practice, is perceived as a valuable source of increasing public mental health systemsresponsiveness to service usersneeds and goals For this purpose, one particular strategy is integrating PSWs in the mental health workforce [4]. Co-production and co-creation are concepts used to describe such interactive processes Sometimes these concepts are used interchangeably without distinguishing between their meanings [5]. A scoping review is chosen because it is suited to get an overview of PSWs different involvement in public mental health and addiction services. The research will be mapped with a particular objective to obtain an overview of the types of co-production and co-creation PSWs are involved in, the conditioning factors (antecedents and barriers), and described aims and actual outcomes

Aims of the scoping review

Methods

Discussion

Findings

Limitation of the study