Aim

The aim of the collaborative is to focus, discuss and develop service user participation in practice research. The issue has been touched at all practice research conferences and was the main topic at the 6th International Conference in Practice Research in Social Work in Aalborg, Denmark in 2023. The topic needs ongoing discussions and development. Collaboration and co-creation are central parts of any kind of practice research. The collaboration between researchers and service users could, however, be one of the most challenging parts – especially if we include experiences from collaboration between social workers and service users in social work.

The collaborative is interested in building an international community of practice of collaboration and cocreation with service users in health, mental health, and social services and related areas. The idea of the group is for members to share experience from different regions and projects, to discuss issues, notions, barriers, and possibilities, maybe to write and present together – and naturally to include service users, service user organizations and practitioners in the discussion of the collaboration and co-creation.