The STRENCO Logic Model for Tripartite Working provides a snapshot of the feasibility of working in more co-produced ways to achieve greater inclusiveness of service users, family members, carers, experts by experience, clinicians, academics and students in relation to decision making processes, care, policy and research, which is aspired for mental health.
The development of the model was conceived in the context of EU policy emphasising the role of research, education and practice as co-creators in developing new approaches for working (knowledge triangle). In some countries co-production is written into national policy frameworks, whilst in others the integration of service users is limited to involvement in research projects, with the integration of service users and family members into mental health service development, delivery, evaluation and research a work in progress.
Whilst co-production forms part of discussions in regards to mental health services, few examples of how this can be done by involving all dimensions in the knowledge triangle currently exist. The STRENCO Logic Model for tripartite working (Figure 1) extends current evidence by providing pragmatic guidance on how to co-produce in mental health (Slay & Stephens, 2013; NDTi, 2016).
In making the proposal to create a Tripartite Model for working, the partners agreed and put forward a method where all stakeholders in the mental health conversation could be involved in the co-creation of knowledge and learning that might strengthen and improve competencies in mental health. An approach, drawing from the principles of participatory action research was adopted. This approach proposed the development of Communities of Practice (CoPs) comprising service users, family members, carers, experts by experience, clinicians, academics and students in each of the six partner institutions in the five countries. These CoPs fed into the central project as ‘think tanks’, both for the development of the Outputs on the project and for the running of the associated Intensive Programmes for students and teachers. Through our learning in these Communities of Practice, they have become the keystone of the STRENCO Logic Model and as a way of working
