Participatory action research and evaluation with mental health self-help initiatives: A theoretical framework

Abstract

In deciding whether or not to collaborate with one another in a research partnership, researchers and members of mental health self-help (MHSH) initiatives should address several questions. What values will underlie the partnership? How will power be shared? What will the focus of the research be? What type of knowledge will be sought? How will the knowledge be used? What roles will the different partners play? In this chapter, we present a theoretical framework that aims to clarify how researchers and mental health self-helpers might answer these questions as they co-construct a research project. The framework consists of six elements: (a) values, (b) participation and power-sharing, (c) social programming, (d) knowledge construction, (e) knowledge utilization, and (f) practice. For each element, we discuss the main issues; we illustrate these issues with examples from both our work and that of others; and we note lessons learned and provide recommendations for future research and evaluation with MHSH initiatives. © 2010 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.