ABSTRACT
A review by the King’s Fund of adult mental health services in three West London boroughs for the purchasers of one health authority highlighted the need to consult with stakeholders, especially users, 1 when planning services. Although the health authority had conducted the usual consultation surveys, it accepted the report’s view that this had been neither substantial nor effective. As a result my colleagues 2 and I were approached in January 1995 by the health authority to find an effective way of engaging service users in each borough. In broad terms, the purpose of this project was as follows:
to elicit users’ views about current and future mental health services within each of the three boroughs covered by the trust
to draw conclusions from this process which could inform strategies for improving involvement of, and collaboration with, service users in general.
