Impact of involvement in mental health professional education on patient educators: a qualitative systematic review.

OBJECTIVES: Patient involvement in mental health professional education is required by policy but lacks a robust evidence base. The impact of involvement in education on patients with mental health conditions may differ from that of patients with other conditions. This study aims to review the impact of involvement in mental health professional education on the patients with mental health conditions involved. SETTING: Electronic databases MEDLINE, PubMed, AMED, EMBASE, PsycINFO, Emcare, BNI, HMIC and CINAHL were systematically searched to find articles reporting on health professional teaching interventions involving patients with mental health conditions and the psychological, social or physical impact of involvement. The search took place in August 2023. RESULTS: Findings from 20 articles were amalgamated into four synthesised findings: (1) Impact of general involvement (2) impact of making a difference through teaching, (3) impact of new relationships and (4) impact of talking about experiences. CONCLUSIONS: Patient involvement in mental health professional education can be beneficial for patients with mental health conditions when their experiences are respected and valued as expertise by students and academic staff. The experiences of patient educators in the mental health field are unique in that teaching activities interact with their mental health. Future research should evaluate patient involvement in the mental health field separately and report research findings according to reporting guidelines. PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42020224907.

Power, recovery and doing something worthwhile: A thematic analysis of expert patient perspectives in psychiatry education.

BACKGROUND: Patient involvement in psychiatry education is required by policy and has many benefits for students. Little research has focused on the impact on expert patients (EPs). OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to explore the impact of involvement in psychiatry education on mental health patients. DESIGN: A qualitative descriptive study using semistructured interviews was conducted in a psychiatry teaching unit in the East Midlands, UK. A purposive sample of 20 EPs involved in teaching was interviewed about the social and psychological impacts of involvement. Transcripts were analysed thematically and a coding scheme was developed. RESULTS: Five themes were identified: shaping the doctors of the future-something worthwhile, challenging assumptions about mental health, recovery and transformation, vulnerability and support and expertise and power. CONCLUSION: These EPs benefitted from their experience of teaching. Involvement in psychiatry teaching may require putting oneself in a vulnerable position, but a supportive and open faculty team may mitigate this challenge. The Expert Patient Programme was seen as a way of helping to reduce the power difference between patients and doctors in the future. There is a need to examine the language that we use to talk about patient involvement as this may have implications for this power dynamic. The context and mechanisms that lead to the benefits described by participants should be studied so that these benefits may be generalized to other contexts. PATIENT CONTRIBUTION: An EP was involved in the planning and ethical approval application process of the project and the drafting and approval of this manuscript.