"Purpose: This study aims to explore the perspectives of psychiatrists with lived experiences and what their considerations are upon integrating the personal into the professional realm. Design/methodology/approach: As part of a qualitative participatory research approach, participant observations during two years in peer supervision sessions (15 sessions with 8 psychiatrists with lived experiences), additional interviews as part of member feedback and a focus group were thematically analysed. Findings: Although the decision to become a psychiatrist was often related to personal experiences with mental distress and some feel the need to integrate the personal into the professional, the actual use of lived experiences appears still in its early stages of development. Findings reveal three main considerations related to the personal (3.1), professionality (3.2) and clinical relevance (3.3) comprising 11 facilitators and 9 barriers to harness lived experiences. Research limitations/implications: This study was conducted locally and there are no similar comparable studies known. It was small in its size due to its qualitative nature and with a homogeneous group and therefore may lack generalisability. Practical implications: Future directions to further overcome shame and stigma and discover the potential of lived experiences are directed to practice, education and research. Originality/value: Psychiatrists with lived experiences valued the integration of experiential knowledge into the professional realm, even though being still under development. The peer supervision setting in this study was experienced as a safe space to share personal experiences with vulnerability and suffering rather than a technical disclosure. It re-sensitised participants to their personal narratives, unleashing its demystifying, destigmatising and humanising potential."
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Many mental health professionals have also used mental health services. What role should their personal experience play in their clinical practice - if any? - a commentary
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There is increasing interest in the use of experiential knowledge and the development of experiential expertise in mental health. Yet, little is known about how best to use this expertise in the role of a psychiatrist. This study aims to gain insight into the concerns of psychiatrists using their lived experiences with mental health distress as a source of knowledge for patients, colleagues and themselves. Eighteen psychiatrists with lived experience as patients in mental health care were interviewed with a semi-structured questionnaire. The interviews were analyzed using qualitative narrative thematic analysis. The majority of the respondents use their lived experience implicitly in the contact with patients, which makes the contact more equal and strengthens the treatment relationship. When explicitly using experiential knowledge in the contact with patients, thought should be given at forehand to its purpose, timing and dosage. Recommendations are that the psychiatrist should be able to reflect on his/her lived experience from a sufficient distance and should take patient factors into account. When working in a team, it is advisable to discuss the use of experiential knowledge in advance with the team. An open organizational culture facilitates the use of experiential knowledge and safety and stability in the team are vital. Current professional codes do not always offer the space to be open. Organizational interests play a role, in the degree of self-disclosure as it can lead to conflict situations and job loss. Respondents unanimously indicated that the use of experiential knowledge in the role of a psychiatrist is a personal decision. Self-reflection and peer supervision with colleagues can be helpful to reflect on different considerations with regard to the use of experiential knowledge. Having personal lived experiences with a mental disorder affects the way psychiatrists think about and performs the profession. The perception of psychopathology becomes more nuanced and there seems to be an increased understanding of the suffering. Even though harnessing experiential knowledge makes the doctor-patient relationship more horizontal it remains unequal because of the difference in roles. However, if adequately used, experiential knowledge can enhance the treatment relationship.
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Abstract: Existing frailty models have enhanced research and practice; however, none of the models accounts for the perspective of older adults upon defining and operationalizing frailty. We aim to propose a mixed conceptual model that builds on the integral model while accounting for older adults’ perceptions and lived experiences of frailty. We conducted a traditional literature review to address frailty attributes, risk factors, consequences, perceptions, and lived experiences of older adults with frailty. Frailty attributes are vulnerability/susceptibility, aging, dynamic, complex, physical, psychological, and social. Frailty perceptions and lived experience themes/subthemes are refusing frailty labeling, being labeled “by others” as compared to “self-labeling”, from the perception of being frail towards acting as being frail, positive self-image, skepticism about frailty screening, communicating the term “frail”, and negative and positive impacts and experiences of frailty. Frailty risk factors are classified into socio-demographic, biological, physical, psychological/cognitive, behavioral, and situational/environmental factors. The consequences of frailty affect the individual, the caregiver/family, the healthcare sector, and society. The mixed conceptual model of frailty consists of interacting risk factors, interacting attributes surrounded by the older adult’s perception and lived experience, and interacting consequences at multiple levels. The mixed conceptual model provides a lens to qualify frailty in addition to quantifying it.
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This workshop is about sharing how including experts by experience benefits all those who areinvolved in social work (education) and contributes to change the nature and discourse of social workeducation and research. Participants in this workshop will learn about our learned lessons and areinvited to contribute their own ideas, to further develop the employment of people with lived experiencein social work..Faculty members at the Applied University of Amsterdam, (one of) the oldest and largest universitiesfor social work in the world, felt that social work education was lacking something very vital: the voicesof the people that it’s all about. Therefore, experts by experience, people who have been or are on theother side of the fence of social and mental health services and are able to use their experiences in aqualified manner, are invited to join social work education programs. Together with students and socialworkers they reflect on an extensive list of issues, for example, the importance of humane contact, theloopholes in the welfare system, the omnipresence of prejudice and power lingering in social andmental health services also, and the thin line between being an accepted member of the system andbeing a person in need. The overall positive responses affirm that hearing the perspective ofexperience helps students to gain a profounder understanding of the complex issues people inpractice are facing and their own role as social workers.Structurally collaborating with experts of experience, our university holds a unique position. We areregularly approached by other academic and social organisations to introduce our unconventional wayof teaching whilst warranting a high educational standard. We believe that incorporating livedexperience as an equal source of knowledge should be at the core of all social work education andresearch.
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Structured experience (SE) providers continuously evaluate and improve their experiential offerings to make them more memorable. Arguably, the temporal dynamics of the emotions in an experience have a crucial influence on its memorability. Traditional post-experience evaluation procedures tend to ignore these temporal dynamics, thus offering imprecise feedback for providers on exactly when and where to optimize their experiential offerings. In this paper, we use two methods as a tool for evaluating how closely the lived experience of a SE follows the experience as intended by the provider: real-time skin conductance (SC) and experience reconstruction measures (ERMs). We demonstrate that both SC and ERMs are significantly related to intended experience. This link was found to be stronger for later sections of the experience than for earlier sections. In addition, SC and ERMs appear to be useful tools to assess the effectiveness of design interventions, thus providing valuable feedback for SE providers.
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Het proefschrift gaat over de waarde van ervaringskennis van zorgprofessionals werkzaam in de ggz. Ruim vier jaar lang deed Karbouniaris kwalitatief en participatief onderzoek bij vier zorgorganisaties van het PEPPER-consortium, een samenwerkingverband om de professionalisering van ervaringskennis en -deskundigheid te stimuleren. Naast een literatuurstudie, is in de praktijk samengewerkt met cliënten, ervaringsdeskundigen, professionals (verpleegkundigen, sociaal werkers, humanistisch verzorgenden en psychiaters), bestuurders en managers. Middels case-studies, leergemeenschappen, diepte-interviews, participatieve observaties, responsieve evaluaties en auto-etnografie van de onderzoekster kreeg het onderzoek gestalte.
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