recovery through discovery

developing partners

Our History

Research Governance Framework (2002) – highlighted the need for service user and carer involvement in ALL aspects of the research process

DEVELOP - Service User and Carer Group who helped us devise our skills development programme

ARISE - Accessible Research Involvement for Service Evaluation, was our first project. It gave us the experience we needed to set up developing partners. I suppose you could say we have ARISEN!

recovery through discovery

What we are: DoH Funded Social Enterprise Company Ltd by Guarantee Workers Co-operative Employment for All The greatest barrier people face is not being

given the chance to prove their effectiveness”, (DoH, 2006)

Undertake research and evaluation and staff training relevant to our own lived experience

Most important aspect is enabling the voices of those least often heard to be listened to!

Our Philosophy

Paulo FreireBrazilian Educational PsychologistConceptual FrameworkKnowledge is not neutral – there are

hidden agendas contained within it.Oppressed peoples often experience life

as objects – they are acted upon, as opposed to acting for themselves.

They can sometimes lack the critical skills essential for influencing the institutions that have control over their lives.

He advocated for a process he called “Conscientization”

Conscientization

Changes in both the internal and external world of the person

Development of the link between knowledge and power through self directed action

Allows people to question the nature of their historical and social situation

Transforms the object experience of being acted upon into a subject experience of acting upon

Our Philosophy

Ignacio Martin-Baro Jesuit Priest and Liberation Psychologist “If our aim is to serve the liberation needs of

the people, we need to ally ourselves with poor and oppressed groups in their struggle for justice and dignity.”

“We need to develop a progressive psychology that helps people find the road to their personal and collective historical fulfilment In our case more than anyone else’s, the principal holds…the concern of the social scientist should be not so much to explain the world, as to change it.”

What Does That Look Like?

Power Awareness: making and remaking society and history by human action

Critical Analysis of Discourse: beyond the surface impressions to an in depth analysis

De-socialisation: Challenging the myths, values and behaviours adopted as object

Self Organisation and Education:Transformational relationships based on equality and shared power

Problem Posing

Experiential: Learn by doing Participatory: At a level that suits the individual Situated: In the lived experience of the individual Democratic: Mutually constructed by the individual

and the group Dialogic: raises awareness and facilitates the

process of conscientization / awareness Challenges oppression: active subjects not passive

objects Activist: seeks answers through the research

process

Personal / Professional Programme

Tees Region Open College NetworkFour modules: Research and

DevelopmentPersonal / Professional DevelopmentCounselling SkillsFree Module: Domestic Violence,

Gender Issues, Human Rights, negotiable choice

Research Governance

Criminal Records Bureau ChecksHonorary ContractsPeer Review GroupAwareness of roles and responsibilitiesConfidentiality Health and Safety: Mandatory TrainingOccupational Health Checks

recovery through discovery

Work we are currently involved in doing or developing: British Institute for Human Rights – Service User Charter Legal Services Commission – Sectioning Process Employment for people with MH needs – Government

Office North East Young People who self harm - HTA, DoH Mental Health First Aid - CSIP / NIMHE Access to Psychological Therapies - North Tees and

Hartlepool PCT / NIMHE / CSIP Access to Primary Care Services for prisoners - PORSCH

Network, Public Health Observatory Service User and Survivor Trainers Network - SUSTN

National

dp Evaluation

How we are going to evaluate our own project!

Liberation and Community PsychologyParticipatory Action ResearchService User led outcome measuresConcrete measures - housing, care package,

education, time feeling wellBroad range of tools - diaries, narrative

accounts, focus groups, observationalProfessor Raquel Guzzo - Brazil

recovery through discovery

A Word about the Recovery Process Can occur without professional intervention Essential to have people who believe in and

support you in the process of recovery Is not linked to the cause of the problem Can take place even if symptoms re-occur Alters the pattern and symptoms of the illness Does not happen in a straight line Consequences of mental ill health more difficult

to recover from than the original episode Does not mean the illness never happened!