Psychometric evaluation of the hope, agency and opportunity (HAO); a brief measure of mental health recovery.

Background: The development of safe and effective mental health services is a priority. This requires valid measures of personal recovery, yet these tools are not embedded in routine clinical practice. Brief "patient reported measures" are most likely to be acceptable to service-users and clinicians.

Experiences of service user and carer participation in health care education.

The agenda of involving service users and their carers more meaningfully in the development, delivery and evaluation of professional education in health is gaining in importance. The paper reports on a symposium which presented three diverse initiatives, established within a school of nursing and midwifery in the United Kingdom. These represent different approaches and attempts to engage service users and in some instances carers more fully in professional education aimed at developing mental health practitioners.

User participation in mental health nurse decision-making: a co-operative enquiry.

Aim: This paper is a report of a study to encourage participants to work together to identify strategies for increasing user participation in clinical decisions and to evaluate the value of co-operative inquiry as a vehicle for supporting learning in practice.

Background: Service user participation in the clinical practice decisions of mental health nurses is considered essential for good practice. Methods need to be found which enable opportunities for shared learning, facilitate practice development and empower service users.

A socially inclusive approach to user participation in higher education.

Aim: This paper is a report of a study to evaluate the development of an innovative Service User Academic post in mental health nursing in relation to student learning and good employment practice in terms of social inclusion.

Background: Institutions providing professional mental health education are usually expected to demonstrate user involvement in the design, delivery and evaluation of their educational programmes to ensure that user voices are central to the development of clinical practice. Involvement can take many forms but not everyone values user knowledge as equal to other sources of knowledge.

Experiences of service user and carer participation in health care education.

The agenda of involving service users and their carers more meaningfully in the development, delivery and evaluation of professional education in health is gaining in importance. The paper reports on a symposium which presented three diverse initiatives, established within a school of nursing and midwifery in the United Kingdom. These represent different approaches and attempts to engage service users and in some instances carers more fully in professional education aimed at developing mental health practitioners.