Improving user/carer involvement in commissioning and reviewing mental health services.

Increasingly there is greater emphasis on user/carer involvement in the delivery of mental health care. There are five levels of participation from none at all to partnership and optimal involvement. A two-year pilot steering group was established by a health authority in December 2000 and criteria for independent evaluation agreed. These included the context, data collection, analysis and report, and recommendations based on the findings to increase user/carer involvement in all aspects of mental health service delivery.

Mental Health Review, 2006, vol. 11, no. 1, p. 16-2 (available via your local NHS Library)