ABSTRACT
The principled and practical reality of implementing user involvement in research when working with children and young people with mental health needs raises a number of interesting questions, challenges and dilemmas. This chapter addresses issues that emerged from the evaluation of an innovative multi-agency, multidisciplinary service for children and young people experiencing severe mental health, emotional and/or behaviour difficulties called the Southampton Behaviour Resource Service. It introduces a framework for understanding types of service user involvement and explores a range of strategies that were used to help turn rhetoric into reality. These strategies are explored in relation to three stages of research project activity:
design
delivery
dissemination.
In particular, the chapter will detail the dissemination phase as this proved to be the stage at which it was possible to be the most creative for involving users. Ways in which structural and situational factors acted as inhibitors to the fulfilment of some of the participative aspirations of researchers are explored. The chapter concludes with a summary of some lessons learned from the evaluation study about involving young people who experience mental ill health in research activities, with suggestions for further development of this form of participation.