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>I have just received this press release from Mental Health in Higher Education.

NEW PUBLICATION: Involving Service Users and Carers in Education: the Development Worker’s Role

The increasing participation of service users, patients, families and carers has been one of the most significant developments in professional education for
health and social work over the past decade. The process of
involving ‘experts by experience’ in professional education is complex, however. To be effective it must be carefully planned and executed and supported financially. Recognising this, an increasing number of Higher Education Institutions have opted to employ people whose remit is to recruit, train and support service users and carers to contribute to professional programmes.

In the summer of 2005 a small group of development workers met over two
days in Nottingham. They had in common that they were fairly newly
appointed to posts, based in higher education institutions, with the aim of facilitating user and carer involvement in education for health and social
care. Lively discussion was accompanied by a shared sense of optimism and
enjoyment in the possibilities of these new roles, which were seen to pose significant challenges too.

Supported by the Mental Health in Higher Education (mhhe) project, but with a remit that goes beyond mental health, the Developers of User and Carer Involvement in Education (DUCIE) network has since met three times a year, combating isolation and facilitating the sharing of expertise and experience between those employed in these evolving roles.

These guidelines, based on the experiences of pioneering development workers already active in the field, aim to inform good practice in the employment and support of user and carer involvement workers in higher education institutions. They can be downloaded from:
www.mhhe.heacademy.ac.uk/ducieguidelines

For further information about the Developers of User and Carer Involvement in Education network, please contact n.westerby@lancaster.ac.uk Tel (01524)594094 or j.anderson@lancaster.ac.uk (0152) 592836

Elaine

www.hanzak.com