Service User and Carer Involvement in Education for Health and Social Care

Soo Downe is Professor of Midwifery Studies at University of Central Lancashire. She is a coordinator of the Comensus project and has led the research activity linked to Comensus. She is editor of Normal Childbirth, by Elsevier, and joint-editor of our forthcoming title - Essential Midwifery Practice: Intrapartum Care. Mick McKeown is Principal Lecturer in mental health nursing research at the University of Central Lancashire, and co-founder of the Comensus project with Soo Downe. He is a trade union activist for Unison and contributes to union debates relating to service user involvement.Lisa Malihi-Shoja is co-ordinator for the Comensus Project at the University of Central Lancashire. She is dedicated to service user and carer involvement and has developed and supported a n umber of projects across a wide range of settings, including community projects, acute care and forensic projects.

• Promoting Partnership for Health. The Comensus Writing Collective: Notes on Authorship.Notes on Language.Introduction.Part I: The Context.1 Service User and Carer Involvement in Higher Education.2 The Social and Political Context.3 Beyond the Campus: Universities, Community Engagement and Social Enterprise.4 Research and Evaluation of Service Users’ and Carers’ Involvement in Health Professional Education.5 What Counts Cannot be Counted: Community Engagement as a Catalyst for Emotional Intelligence.Part II: Personal Experiences: The Case of Comensus.6 Setting up a Service User and Carer Engagement Project: Comensus.7 Climbing the Ladder of Involvement: A Manager’s Perspective.8 Stories of Engagement.9 Making Sense of Involvement in Comensus.10 Shedding Masks: Transitions in Mental Health and Education, a Personal View.Conclusions.References.Appendices.Appendix 1: Research and Evaluation Planning Worksheet.Appendix 2: Terms of Reference for Comensus Advisory Group.Appendix 3: Year One Issues and Solutions.Appendix 4: Terms of Reference for CIT.Appendix 5: COMENSUS: Action Plan 2009.Appendix 6: Year Three Sub-Groups of The Community Involvement Team.Appendix 7: Year 3 Issues and Solutions.Appendix 8: Protocol for the Development of Learning Resources Involving Service Users and/or Carers.Appendix 9: Service User/Carer/Public Consent Form.Index.