ABSTRACT
A key domain for participation is the involvement of service users in service delivery. Human services historically have tended to see the people who use them as individuals, family members or possibly members of broader groups and communities. One of the themes running through service user groups and movements is that people define themselves not in terms of services or practitioners, but rather in terms of their lives and their overall identity. The knowledge and experience of service users and their organisations are likely to have a helpful role to play in supporting better integrated and coordinated practice in human services. A number of overarching obstacles to positive inter-agency and inter-professional practice can be identified from the perspectives of service users. These include: administrative and organisational barriers; the reduction of service users to abstracted needs and characteristics; the dominance of the medical model and the subordination of social approaches; and inequalities of power and status between professions and occupations.
