5 Alignment and service user participation in low-threshold meetings with people using drugs
-
Suvi Raitakari
Abstract
Since the 1980s, service user participation has been a widely discussed ideal among politicians, health and social care professionals and service users themselves (for example, Velasco, 2001; Kvarnström et al, 2012; Finset, 2017). Service user movements have highlighted participation as an issue of freedom of choice, human rights and self-determination (for example, Cook and Jonikas, 2002; Raitakari et al, 2015; Lakhani et al, 2018; see also Chapter 1). In general, the concept signifies that service users play an important role in directing health and social care service systems as well as their personal service pathways. Additionally, service users are portrayed as evaluators, informants, consumers, decision makers, experts-by-experience or collaborators in professional encounters.
Western policies emphasise that services and multi-agency collaboration should be pursued in a way that strengthens service user participation (for example, Thomas, 2010; Fox and Reeves, 2015; see also Chapter 1). However, there is conflicting knowledge on how this aim is actually realised in frontline practices of health and social care (for example, Kortteisto et al, 2018; see also Chapter 1). Multi-agency collaboration is a challenging way to realise participation because it requires various competencies, such as the capacity to express oneself, to consider the stances of other parties and to cross potential barriers, such as poor communication and lack of respect (Hopwood and Edwards, 2017; Naldemirci et al, 2018).
In this chapter, service user participation is examined through interprofessional interactions in multi-agency meetings in Finnish low-threshold substance use services. The aim is to scrutinise interactional practices that strive to collaboratively strengthen the service user participation of vulnerable groups.
Abstract
Since the 1980s, service user participation has been a widely discussed ideal among politicians, health and social care professionals and service users themselves (for example, Velasco, 2001; Kvarnström et al, 2012; Finset, 2017). Service user movements have highlighted participation as an issue of freedom of choice, human rights and self-determination (for example, Cook and Jonikas, 2002; Raitakari et al, 2015; Lakhani et al, 2018; see also Chapter 1). In general, the concept signifies that service users play an important role in directing health and social care service systems as well as their personal service pathways. Additionally, service users are portrayed as evaluators, informants, consumers, decision makers, experts-by-experience or collaborators in professional encounters.
Western policies emphasise that services and multi-agency collaboration should be pursued in a way that strengthens service user participation (for example, Thomas, 2010; Fox and Reeves, 2015; see also Chapter 1). However, there is conflicting knowledge on how this aim is actually realised in frontline practices of health and social care (for example, Kortteisto et al, 2018; see also Chapter 1). Multi-agency collaboration is a challenging way to realise participation because it requires various competencies, such as the capacity to express oneself, to consider the stances of other parties and to cross potential barriers, such as poor communication and lack of respect (Hopwood and Edwards, 2017; Naldemirci et al, 2018).
In this chapter, service user participation is examined through interprofessional interactions in multi-agency meetings in Finnish low-threshold substance use services. The aim is to scrutinise interactional practices that strive to collaboratively strengthen the service user participation of vulnerable groups.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents vii
- List of figures and tables viii
- Notes on contributors ix
- Acknowledgements xi
- Introduction 1
- From a collaborative and integrated welfare policy to frontline practices 9
- Examining talk and interaction in meetings of professionals and service users 33
- How chairs use the pronoun ‘we’ to guide participation in rehabilitation team meetings 63
- Working within frames and across boundaries in core group meetings in child protection 83
- Alignment and service user participation in low-threshold meetings with people using drugs 115
- Sympathy and micropolitics in return-to-work meetings 141
- Negotiating epistemic rights to knowledge concerning service users’ recent histories in mental health meetings 171
- Relational agency and epistemic justice in initial child protection conferences 197
- Conclusion 225
- Postscript 241
- Index 247
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents vii
- List of figures and tables viii
- Notes on contributors ix
- Acknowledgements xi
- Introduction 1
- From a collaborative and integrated welfare policy to frontline practices 9
- Examining talk and interaction in meetings of professionals and service users 33
- How chairs use the pronoun ‘we’ to guide participation in rehabilitation team meetings 63
- Working within frames and across boundaries in core group meetings in child protection 83
- Alignment and service user participation in low-threshold meetings with people using drugs 115
- Sympathy and micropolitics in return-to-work meetings 141
- Negotiating epistemic rights to knowledge concerning service users’ recent histories in mental health meetings 171
- Relational agency and epistemic justice in initial child protection conferences 197
- Conclusion 225
- Postscript 241
- Index 247
