We want to hear from you if you have had a positive and meaningful experience with a mental health professional where you felt listened to and valued.
Cavamh has been asked to help Social Services Mental Health Staff in Cardiff and Vale Councils to improve their understanding of co-production in their work with service users and carers. Co-production is a term which has become widely used in recent years. Such an approach in the past might have been described as client or person centred work.
We see co-production in work between the professional and user of services as having a number of the following features, though this is not a comprehensive list….
- Respect for the uniqueness of the lived experience
- Seeing the service user as the ‘expert’ of their situation
- Listening and understanding
- Empathy, trust and warmth
- Collaboration and working jointly together
- Using inclusive language
- Allowing ‘space’ for exploration of issues
- Strengths and solution focussed, not problem focussed.
- Being open and honest
Part of our work is to compile video and audio stories and testimonials from people who have lived experience of mental health services as a service user or carer where a session or an intervention with a professional felt co-productive. You might have felt listened to, understood and part of developing a way forward as an equal partner with your Worker.
The testimonials will form part of a Co-production resource. Clips of the videos or audio might be, with your permission, be used in training sessions.
The Interviews will be with cavamh staff and take place on Zoom and will be recorded either in sound or vision, depending on your preference, and we anticipate they will take around half an hour.
We are very pleased that Cardiff and Vale Councils are keen to positively develop their work in this area and we hope you would like to be part of a service improvement initiative.
In recognition of your contribution we will be offering optional remuneration either as cash transfer to your bank or a shopping voucher to the value of £20.00
If you are interested please email [email protected] or [email protected]