3 Benefits of Service User Involvement
The concept of service user involvement emerged in the 1960s and 1970s through the disabled person's movement which called for greater user involvement. Its primary aims were to challenge the medical model of disability and for the inclusion of people living with disabilities in service design and delivery.
The principles of user involvement have continued to attract attention and greater importance has been afforded to involving members of the public, patients and service users in the delivery of public services. Service user involvement has become commonplace in the areas of disability, mental health and social care. Progress has been slower, however, in other areas such as substance misuse.
The benefits of effective service user involvement are well documented and can be observed at a number of levels.
Some examples of service user involvement include evaluation forms, face-to-face interviews, peer group forums, service management involvement and national strategy forums. More examples are provided later in this document.
The variety of methods available to involve service users means that individuals can participate at a level that they feel comfortable with. Each method is of benefit to both service users and service providers and should be encouraged.
Benefits to Service Users
- Service management involvement provides individuals with a forum in which to raise issues and concerns in an appropriate manner and encourages active participation in treatment decisions.
- It contributes to the development of open and transparent working relationships where individuals are valued and listened to.
- At an individual level, meaningful involvement allows active participation in treatment decisions and prevents individuals from becoming passive recipients of services.
- It provides individuals with opportunities to share their knowledge and expertise of what works and what does not work.
- It creates opportunities for service users to influence service delivery and service planning at both local and national levels.
- Where effective, service user involvement can increase and maintain self-esteem and self-confidence and support their progression through recovery and rehabilitation.
Benefits to Service Providers
- They can learn more about the experiences of users and carers and encourage the development of closer working relationships between service users and staff.
- They can use these experiences to change current provision or develop additional services to meet the needs identified by its service users.
- They can encourage service users to express their views and use their energy and experience to make long-term improvements to service.
- They are able to use the information from service users to evidence outcome measures and report to stakeholders.
- It enables the development of transparent and open services and decision making processes.
- Effective service user involvement creates a working environment where both staff and service users feel comfortable about expressing personal opinion - both positive and negative.
- Service user involvement should be used inform training and reflection on practice.
Benefits to Service Commissioners
- They will be able to ensure that service provision meets the needs of the local population.
- Information from user involvement aids the identification of gaps in service delivery.
- It informs and contributes to service reviews.
- It improves commissioners' abilities to influence the national debate by having better local information.