Enhancing Consumer Voice in Service Delivery

This work involves a collaboration with consumer researchers to collect, code, and analyze focus group data from peers about their views of publicly funded behavioral health services. This work has yielded valid data and results that are more readily utilized within the service system. Our work has demonstrated that consumer researchers with lived experience have brought a contextualized perspective that has resulted in a more complete and nuanced understanding of their experiences. Leadership of the organizations where this work has occurred report that the involvement of consumer researchers provides an added legitimacy and authenticity to the results which has catalyzed change within the organizations.