There has been a ton of work done in the field of 'Recovery' and more recently 'empowerment'... check out names like Sheryl Mead and Charles Wrap.

However when I completed my degree in mental health last year I would say about half of my class mates had lived experience of mental health issues. There is a reason we are drawn to this field and I suspect the same would apply to psychiatrists, psychologists, counselors etc. The trick is to encourage open dialogue amongst the mental health professionals rather than denial and projection. Perhaps if this was achieved we could....

1. Eliminate the 'them/us' mentality... we are all humans who are capable of being physically, emotionally and spiritually overwhelmed from time to time. Let alone situationally, relationally, financially, nutritionally...

2. Encourage the identification of cause and addressing those rather than stigmatize and locking in life time conditions. Ie. food intolerance, heavy metal exposure, sprays, medications (over 800 cause depression as a side effect), parasites and so many more.

3. Reduce the heavy handed use of medication which leaves people in a drug induced haze from which they have to struggle to be normal through.

4. Drop words like 'consumer' its very dependent sounding. Maori use a word which literally means 'seekers of wellness'. Even the word 'training' is too similar to one you would use for dogs or monkeys.

To be honest as an 'expert ex patient' reading the DSM is like reading Greek, it contains nothing that is familiar to the experience. However the writings of other people like myself is remarkably consistent and familiar. Psychosis can only be described by someone who has experienced it and not as a cluster of subjectively observed symptoms. It is for this reason I like the work of Pat Deegan, Mary O'Hagan, Ronald Colman, Mary Ellen Copeland, Chedwick etc.

I would suggest

Barkway, P., Mosel, K., Simpson, A., Oster, C. and Muir-Cochrane, E.C. (2012). Consumer and carer consultants in mental health: The formation of their role identity. Advances in Mental Health, 10(2), pp.157-168. [online]. http://dx.doi.org/10.5172/jamh.2011.10.2.

Sorry the doi should be http://pubs.e-contentmanagement.com/doi/abs/10.5172/jamh.2011.10.2.157

Mental Health disparities researchers are leaders in this type of approach to improving MH care uptake and acceptability. I'd say see our work www.aakomaproject.org, Loretta Jones' work in the LA area (she is widely published), stigma reduction research by Corrigan, and almost anything in Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) for racially diverse populations in mental health. There is a good body of literature on this topic for African American and Latinos. Good luck.

Search for the term peer-to-peer (a later terminology) and work by Pat Corrigan.

Hi Stein, I am currently undertaking a PhD in this area. Attached are some literature review references. Also, the University of Nottingham (Theodore Stickley) and the University of Birmingham have done a lot of work in this area. Here is a useful link - on this website is a comprehensive reference list on the topic. http://www.mhhe.heacademy.ac.uk/ Best of luck with your work, Karen

In addition to work by corrigan I would suggest papers by Mark SALZER and Phyllis Solomon Solomon paper on consumer case management and SALZER paper are two randomized controlled trials of this issue

There is extensive work on this topic in the area of mental health. i am attaching a paper that I wrote when we were introducing this into the Royal College of Psychiatrists. If you go onto our website, www.meridenfamilyprogramme.com, you will find a detailed reference lsit on this topic. We are just in the process of updating it, so check in a couple of weeks and there are leikly to be a few more papers added

Has there been any research done on whether user involvement changes the behaviour of clinicians? I can see here that there is evidence of improved attitudes...