Cavamh has been asked to help Social Services Mental Health Staff in Cardiff and Vale Councils to improve their understanding of co-production in their work with service users and carers. Co-production is a term which has become widely used in recent years. Such an approach in the past might have been described as client or person centred work.

We see co-production in work between the professional and user of services as having a number of the following features, though this is not a comprehensive list….

• Respect for the uniqueness of the lived experience
• Seeing the service user as the ‘expert’ of their situation
• Listening and understanding
• Empathy, trust and warmth
• Collaboration and working jointly together
• Using inclusive language
• Allowing ‘space’ for exploration of issues
• Strengths and solution focussed, not problem focussed.
• Being open and honest

Part of our work is to compile video and audio stories and testimonials from people who have lived experience of mental health services as a service user or carer where a session or an intervention with a professional felt co-productive. The testimonials will form part of a Co-production resource. Clips of the videos or audio with the individuals permission, will be used in training sessions.

We are very pleased that Cardiff and Vale Councils are keen to positively develop their work in this area.