The Meaningful Involvement of Service Users and Carers in Advanced-Level Post-Qualifying Social Work Education: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

Martin Webber, BA (Hons), MSc, DipSW, Ph.D., is a Lecturer in Social Work, a registered social worker and programme leader of the MSc in Mental Health Social Work with Children & Adults at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London. His research interests are in social inclusion, social capital and mental health social work, with a particular interest in the development and evaluation of interventions that improve social, as well as health, outcomes. He is co-editor of Reflective Practice in Mental Health: Advanced Psychosocial Practice with Children, Adolescents and Adults (Jessica Kingsley, 2010, with Jack Nathan) and author of Evidence-Based Policy and Practice in Mental Health Social Work (2nd edn, Learning Matters, 2011), both aimed at supporting the professional development of advanced social work practitioners. Karen Robinson worked for nearly a decade in adult education. She had obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) for over thirty years, but delayed twenty-four years before seeking help from the mental health service. She subsequently trained, and has worked, as a service user researcher. She has also worked to support the involvement of service users and carers in a social work programme. Drawing on her personal experience of OCD and cognitive behavioural therapy, she contributes to the training of mental health professionals. She is currently working on a three-year research project: ‘Seeking help and receiving appropriate treatment for obsessive compulsive disorder’.