Relationships with mental health professionals: Service users' views 1
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Experiences and perceptions of helpful and unhelpful relationships with mental health professionals: Service users' perspectives
IRAS ID
160037
Contact name
Karin Bacha
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Manchester
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 9 months, 11 days
Research summary
What are mental health service users' experiences and perceptions of helpful and unhelpful relationships with mental health professionals?
An established body of research has shown that the relationships between mental health professionals (MHP) and service users (SU) have a significant impact on outcomes and recovery. The evidence shows the significance of the relationship between SUs and MHPs on recovery spans across psychotherapeutic approaches, types of mental health services and mental illness diagnosis (Horvath & Bedi, 2002; Martin et al., 2000; Timulak, 2010).
This study aims to explore how these relationships impact on recovery by asking the people who use mental health services about their experiences. This is important because service users' experience-based knowledge is a valuable source of information (NHS Act 2006). The findings can be used to inform mental health commissioners, educators and practitioners about how to improve outcomes and recovery for people who suffer with mental health problems from the perspective of service users.
The participants will be recruited from support groups run a charity service-user run involvement group. This research is service-user informed and has been designed alongside consultation with the service user group committee regarding the research topic, design, ethical considerations and dissemination.
This piece of psychological research will use qualitative research methodology. The data will be collected using semi-structured interviews with 10 participants. The interviewer will ask open-ended questions about helpful and unhelpful relationships with MHPs. The interviews will last between 45 - 90 minutes. The interviews will be conducted in a suitable location and will be audio recorded. The audio recordings will be stored securely and transcribed into text. The data will be qualitatively analysed to explore the lived experiences of the participants and to identify prominent similarities and differences across the participants' experiences. The research will be sponsored by the University of Manchester and will not be funded.
REC name
North West - Greater Manchester West Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/NW/0091
Date of REC Opinion
25 Feb 2015
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion