People participation teams are being established in many British NHS Trusts. They support active service user involvement in staff recruitment interviews, in evaluations of care and in programmes to improve services. No studies exploring experience of people involved in these activities are available in published mental health literature. In this project we explored benefits experienced and suggestions for improvement provided by service users. The design, materials and methods of the project were developed in workshops including N = 15 service users. Three service user researchers were trained to carry out research interviews and qualitative analysis of the data. They were responsible for the management of the project on a day-to-day basis with weekly supervision by academic researchers and authored this paper. The service user researchers interviewed people with at least 1 year of experience of being involved in a People Participation team activities. Interviews were based on a topic guide, which was developed in workshops with a larger number of service users (N = 15) and explored reasons for joining the group, how participation helped recovery and suggestions for service improvement. Fifteen service users were recruited and interviewed. Reasons for joining the group were identified: to “give back” to the service, to influence service change, curiosity, desire to meet like-minded people and to structure the day. Benefits reported included: sharing experiences, improving self-confidence, feeling valued, having a better understanding of services, overcoming personal fears, and developing better coping mechanisms for psychological difficulties. Being involved in People Participation activities helped to gain or refresh listening and interpersonal skills, communication skills, public speaking and creative skills and to develop better ways to cope with conflict. Suggestions for improvement were focused on changing staff attitudes, further promoting participation (e.g. through websites), simplifying payment procedures and establishing a moving-on support system to help people to access regular employment and gain full social inclusion. Our findings showed that People Participation initiatives can have benefits at least for some patients and help their recovery through a positive effect on self-confidence, providing room for feeling valued and for obtaining or refreshing personal skills. This provides support for the development and refinement of People Participation Teams and for larger scale research to test their effects.

中文翻译：

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探索英国国家卫生服务信托中人们参与活动的经验：服务用户主导的研究项目

许多英国 NHS 信托基金正在建立人员参与团队。他们支持服务用户积极参与员工招聘面试、护理评估和改善服务的计划。已发表的心理健康文献中没有研究探索参与这些活动的人的经验。在这个项目中，我们探讨了服务用户提供的体验和改进建议。该项目的设计、材料和方法是在包括 N = 15 名服务用户的研讨会中开发的。三名服务用户研究人员接受了培训，以进行研究访谈和数据的定性分析。他们在学术研究人员的每周监督下，负责项目的日常管理，并撰写了这篇论文。服务用户研究人员采访了至少有 1 年参与人员参与团队活动经验的人。访谈基于主题指南，该指南是在有大量服务用户（N = 15）的研讨会上开发的，并探讨了加入该小组的原因、参与如何帮助恢复以及改进服务的建议。招募并采访了 15 名服务用户。确定加入该小组的原因：“回馈”服务、影响服务变化、好奇心、结识志趣相投的人的愿望以及安排一天的工作。报告的好处包括：分享经验、提高自信、感觉受到重视、更好地理解服务、克服个人恐惧，以及为心理困难制定更好的应对机制。参与人员参与活动有助于获得或更新听力和人际交往能力、沟通技巧、公开演讲和创造性技能，并开发更好的方法来应对冲突。改进建议集中在改变员工态度、进一步促进参与（例如通过网站）、简化支付程序和建立转移支持系统，以帮助人们获得正常就业并获得充分的社会包容。我们的研究结果表明，人们参与倡议至少可以对一些患者有益，并通过对自信的积极影响帮助他们康复，为感觉受到重视以及获得或刷新个人技能提供空间。