Picturing Users’ Voices In Mental Health Research: Inclusion Or Exclusion?

Abstract

Persons in recovery from mental illness are often marginalized in the mainstream of social, economic, educational, recreational and cultural resources and excluded from equal access to participation opportunities as a civil right. By participating in research as respondents or as peer researchers, mental health service users give their voices and contribute to the knowledge construction that informs policy-making, service delivery and clinical practice. This presentation highlights how we can enable persons in recovery to express their voices and unfold their stories about participation in mental health services through a community-based participatory research (CBPR) project. It also discusses how the participatory method can be used to promote social inclusion practices and enhance involvement of persons in recovery in mental health research. The benefits of CBPR that are not elicited through the conventional research method, as well as the lessons learned are to be discussed.