Innovatory features and challenges facing mental health user‐led organisations
| Date | 06 July 2010 |
| Pages | 34-42 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.5042/mhrj.2010.0370 |
| Published date | 06 July 2010 |
| Author | Melanie Boyce,Carol Munn‐Giddings,Lesley Smith,Sarah Campbell |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care |
Mental Health Review Journal Volume 15 Issue 2 June 2010 © Pier Professional Ltd
34
RESEARCH
10.5042/mhrj.2010.0370
Melanie Boyce
Research Associate, Anglia Ruskin University
Carol Munn-Giddings
Professor in Participatory Inquiry and Collaborative Practice, Anglia Ruskin University
Lesley Smith
Freelance Researcher
Sarah Campbell
Research Associate, University of Manchester
Innovatory features and
challenges facing mental
health user-led organisations
Abstract
Despite the recent growing interest in user-led organisations (ULOs), they remain an under-researched
area of volunteer sector activity, with the majority of the literature emanating from North America. This
article attempts to redress this imbalance by reporting on the innovatory features and challenges facing
mental health ULOs in England, particularly in light of recent government policy prioritising generic pan-
disability ULOs. In-depth qualitative interviews were undertaken with a purposive sample of 48 service
users and staff from four geographically dispersed mental health ULOs in England. Innovatory features
identified by staff running and service users attending mental health ULOs were: being user-led; their
non-hierarchical organisational structures; and community-inclusive activities. The challenges identified
were: maintaining a user-led ethos; managing the tension between being user-led or user-managed; and
relationships with funders. Recent policies that recognise and promote the development of ULOs are
encouraging, although the emphasis on generic, pan-disability ULOs may impede the innovatory ethos and
development of mental health ULOs.
Key words
Mental health, user-led organisations, service user.
Introduction
Self-help and mutual aid as a form of voluntary
action has been a feature of human social
organisations, taking different forms in diverse
historical, cultural and socio-political contexts
(Munn-Giddings & Borkman, 2005). Since the
1970s a dominant expression of this type of
voluntary action can be seen in the steady global
rise of single-issue, self-help groups (SHGs) and
more recently self-help organisations (SHOs)
(Borkman, 1999), often referred to in the UK
as user-led organisations (ULOs). A key feature
that distinguishes SHGs and ULOs from other
types of voluntary organisations is the type
of knowledge on which they are based and
on which they develop. Their knowledge base
derives predominately from direct individual
and collective experience of a shared health or
social care condition as those they are providing
a service for. Professionals may have provided
assistance in the early stages of development, but
principally SHGs and ULOs are run by and for
their members, who share an emphasis on the
importance of mutual aid and reciprocity (Wilson,
1998; Munn-Giddings & McVicar, 2006).
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