User involvment in the InvolvE study

Mental health service users were involved in the InvolvE study in two ways. Firstly, one of the principal investigators was a mental health service user. She regarded her job as keeping the study a user-focused one. Secondly, at each site, there was one user researcher and one non-user researcher. We were interested to see whether participants reacted to a peer interviewer differently to a non-peer interviewer. For example, did the presence of a peer interviewer enable the participant to be more open and relaxed or more inclined to voice criticism of their situation as detained patients subject to compulsory treatment. This paper will address these questions.