Abstract
Methods to facilitate co-production in mental health are important for engaging end users. As part of the Technology for Healthy Aging and Wellbeing (THAW) initiative we organized two interactive co-production workshops, to bring together older adults, health and social care professionals, non-governmental organizations, and researchers. In the first workshop, we used two activities: Technology Interaction and Scavenger Hunt, to explore the potential for different stakeholders to discuss late life mental health and existing technology. In the second workshop, we used Vignettes, Scavenger Hunt, and Invention Test to examine how older adults and other stakeholders might co-produce solutions to support mental wellbeing in later life using new and emerging technologies. In this paper, we share the interactive materials and activities and consider their value for co-production. Overall, the interactive methods were successful in engaging stakeholders with a broad range of technologies to support mental health and wellbeing and in co-producing ideas for how they could be leveraged and incorporated into older people’s lives and support services. We offer this example of using interactive methods to facilitate co-production to encourage greater involvement of older adults and other under-represented groups in co-producing mental health technologies and services.
Highlights
Co-production or ‘making things together’ (Social Care Institute for Excellence [SCIE], 2015) is encouraged in health and social care in the United Kingdom and other countries to engage service users
The facilitated, interactive Technology for Healthy Aging and Wellbeing (THAW) workshops were successful in engaging stakeholders from multiple perspectives in open conversations about late life mental health, social isolation, and technology
The intention was to go beyond known obstacles and barriers (e.g., lack of knowledge, inability to access the necessary technology and services, and barriers presented by mental health difficulties (Greer et al, 2019) to consider how to get technology into people’s hands for long-term benefit
Summary
Co-production or ‘making things together’ (Social Care Institute for Excellence [SCIE], 2015) is encouraged in health and social care in the United Kingdom and other countries to engage service users. In the United Kingdom co-production was introduced as a key lesson from two public inquiries which identified that “service providers need to develop more equal partnerships with people who use services and carers” (Social Care Institute for Excellence [SCIE], 2015). Successful co-production requires an environment where everyone’s voice is heard, which is essential for populations not used to speaking in public, or with unequal power dynamics, such as patients speaking with doctors, or frontline staff speaking to managers and commissioners (Astell and Fels, 2021). Co-production has been used in a variety of healthcare settings to improve services, increase choice, respond to user needs and reduce waste (Batalden et al, 2016).
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