ABSTRACT
There were 42 workshops offering participants to the conference a choice of 7 after each group of plenary talks. They were our principal way of creating a dialogue between users and providers of mental illness services. The topics dealt with in the workshops had been decided upon during a series of joint meetings between policy makers, providers and users during the three months preceding the conference. All suggestions for workshops came from the users themselves, but were then narrowed down by a wider group of users and officials from both the King’s Fund and the Maudsley. The themes were both about ends like personal autonomy and self-determination, and means such as advocacy, participation, volunteering, employment and single agency working.
