Beyond consultation: the challenge of working with user/survivor and carer groups 0
Updated 06/02/2010
Psychiatrists, Pat Bracken and Phil Thomas, both long time supporters of INTERVOICE reference the work of the hearing voices movement in an article in the Psychiatric Bulletin (July 2009). They argue the challenge of groups like our own need to be responded to positively by psychiatry.
Summary: "Recent years have seen increased pressures on psychiatrists to work closely with user/survivor and carer groups.We argue that although many groups are happy for this to remain at the level of consultation, there are growing demands from more radical elements of the user/survivor movement for moves towards a more collaborative framework. A number of these groups challenge some of the central assumptions of psychiatry. For productive engagement and collaboration to take place, psychiatry will have to be able to react positively, not defensively, to these challenges. We suggest that this raises questions about how we should think about the nature of science, truth and expertise."Psychiatric Bulletin (2009), 33, 241^243. doi: 10.1192/pb.bp.108.021428
You can read the article here
reader response here
and their reply here here