Inpatient service providers’ perspectives on service user involvement in Norwegian community mental health centres.

Background: For two decades, mental health services in Norway have focused on service user involvement. Despite this, there is little knowledge about how inpatient mental health services have promoted user involvement.Aim: To examine service providers’ reports of service user involvement at the individual and departmental levels in Norwegian community mental health centres (CMHCs).Methods: One hundred and eighty six (186) inpatient service providers in five CMHCs filled out a questionnaire.Results: Confirmatory factor analysis showed that service provider perceptions and awareness of service user involvement can be measured by three subscales: organizational user involvement; patient collaboration; and assisted patient involvement. Little user involvement was reported at the departmental level. Providers more often reported user involvement at the individual level. Providers in two of the CMHCs reported a somewhat higher degree of departmental-level user involvement. There were no significant differences across gender, age, leader position, profession and job tenure, though evening/night shift workers reported a lesser degree of user involvement.Conclusion: The results suggest that user involvement at the departmental level needs to be addressed in future efforts to promote user involvement in CMHCs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]