Service user involvement, authority and the ‘expert-by-experience’ in mental health

Noorani, Tehseen

Abstract

This article re-examines the politics of engagement of the UK mental health service user and survivor movement by focusing upon the mental health ‘expert-by-experience’. Using qualitative data, I illustrate how the service user and survivor movement is able to draw upon an experiential authority that is rooted in practices of self-help and peer-support. I do this by bringing an experimentalist reading of self-help and peer-support practices into dialogue with a model of traditional authority. As such, the personal can be linked up to the political in ways that emphasise the value of self-help and support practices as forms of political participation, while highlighting modes of engagement that are predicated on the capacities, rather than the needs, of the movement.

Citation

Noorani, T. (2013). Service user involvement, authority and the ‘expert-by-experience’ in mental health. Journal of Political Power, 6(1), 49-68. https://doi.org/10.1080/2158379x.2013.774979

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Online Publication Date: Apr 13, 2013
• Publication Date: 2013
• Deposit Date: Jun 15, 2018
• Journal: Journal of Political Power
• Print ISSN: 2158-379X
• Electronic ISSN: 2158-3803
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis Group
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 6
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 49-68
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/2158379x.2013.774979
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1324048