The VOICES typology of curatorial decisions in narrative collections of the lived experiences of mental health service use, recovery or madness: qualitative study

Background: Collections of lived experience narratives are increasingly used in health research and medical practice. However there is limited research concerning the decision-making processes in curating narrative collections, and of the work that curators do as they build and publish collections. Objective: The objectives of this study were to develop a typology of curatorial decisions involved in curating narrative collections presenting lived experiences of mental health service use, recovery or madness, and to document approaches selected by curators in relation to identified curatorial decision. Methods: A preliminary typology was developed by synthesising the results of a systematic review with insights gained through an iterative consultation with an experienced curator of multiple recovery narrative collections. The preliminary typology informed the topic guide for semi-structured interviews with a maximum variation sample of 30 curators from 7 different countries. All participants had experience of curating narrative collections of the lived experiences of mental health service use, recovery or madness. Thematic analysis through constant comparison was conducted by a multidisciplinary team. Results: The final typology identified six themes, giving the acronym VOICES: Values and motivations, Organisation, Inclusion and exclusion, Control and collaboration, Ethics and legal, Safety and wellbeing. 26 sub-themes relating to curation decisions were identified. Conclusions: The VOICES typology identifies key decisions to consider when curating narrative collections about the lived experiences of mental health service use, recovery or madness. The VOICES typology might be used as a theoretical basis for a good practice resource, to support curators in their efforts to balance the challenges and sometimes conflicting imperatives involved in collecting, organising and sharing narratives. Future research might seek to document the usage of such a tool by curators, and hence examine how best to use VOICES to support decision making

The curation of Mental Health Recovery Narrative Collections: systematic review and qualitative synthesis

Background: Mental health recovery narratives are first-person lived experience accounts of recovery from mental health problems, which refer to events or actions over a period of time. They are readily available, either individually, or in collections of recovery narratives published in books, health service booklets or online. Collection of recovery narratives have been used in a range of mental health interventions, and organisations or individuals who curate collections can therefore influence how mental health problems are seen and understood. No systematic review has been conducted of research into curatorial decision making. Objective: To produce a conceptual framework identifying and categorising decisions made in the curation of mental health recovery narrative collections. Methods: A conceptual framework was produced through a systematic review and qualitative evidence synthesis. Research articles were identified through searching of bibliographic databases (n=13), indexes of specific journals (n=3) and grey literature repositories (n=4). Informal documents presenting knowledge about curation was identified from editorial chapters of electronically-available books (n=50), public documents provided by online collections (n=50), and prefaces of health-service booklets identified through expert consultation (n=3). Narrative summaries of included research articles were produced. A qualitative evidence synthesis was conducted on all included documents through inductive thematic analysis. Sub-group analyses were conducted to identify differences in curatorial concerns between online and printed collections. The review protocol was pre-registered (PROSPERO CRD42018086997). Results: 5,410 documents were screened. 23 documents were included. These comprised 1 research publication and 22 informal documents. Nine higher level themes were identified, which considered the intended purpose and audience of the collection, how to support safety of narrators, recipients and third parties, the processes of collecting, selecting, organising and presenting recovery narratives, ethical and legal issues around collections, and the relationship to society of the collection. Online collections placed more emphasis on (1) providing benefits for narrators (2) safety for recipients. Printed collections placed more emphasis on the ordering of narrative within printed material, and the political context. Conclusions: Only one research article was identified, despite extensive searches, and hence this review has revealed a lack of peer-reviewed empirical research regarding the curation of recovery narrative collections. The conceptual framework can be used as a preliminary version of reporting guidelines for use when reporting on healthcare interventions which make use of narrative collections. It provides a theory base to inform the development of new narrative collections for use in complex mental health interventions. Collections can serve as a mechanism for supporting collective rather than individual discourses around mental health

Social Pedagogy: An Approach Without Fixed Recipes

A historical and theoretical reconstruction of the specificity and peculiarity of the discipline of social pedagogy, as it has developed in Denmark. Social pedagogy takes its departure from the idea that the individual person and the community are complementary but at the same time opposed to each other, so the task of social pedagogy is rebalancing the dynamics between the two. Social pedagogy is also characterised as a discipline with three dimensions: a practical dimension, a theoretical dimension and a professional dimension. The professional’s task is neither to apply theory in practice nor to uphold the usual practice; it is to mediate between theory and practice. The specificity of the discipline gives rise to particular challenges and dilemmas that theorists make understandable and transparent and practitioners have to deal with. A big challenge for social pedagogy is the quest for evidence-based methods that overrides the specificity of the social pedagogical approach. Balancing different forms of knowledge implies that programmes and methods are used as inspiration that can be contained in a social pedagogical approach