Learning from service user and carer involvement in clinical psychology training

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to build a theoretical model of how and what clinical psychologists
learn from service user and carer involvement in their training.

Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative research design was adopted, and verbatim transcripts of
semi-structured interviews conducted with 12 clinical psychologists were analysed using grounded theory
methodology.

Findings – Findings indicated that clinical psychologists learned from service user and carer involvement in a variety of ways and a preliminary model was proposed, encompassing four main categories: “mechanisms of learning”, “relational and contextual factors facilitating learning”, “relational and contextual factors hindering learning” and “impact”.

Research limitations/implications – Further research is required to establish to what extent the current
findings may be transferrable to learning from service user and carer involvement in the context of educating professionals from other disciplines. Additionally, participants had limited experiences of carer involvement, and more research in this area specifically would be useful.

Practical implications – This study advocates for service user and carer involvement in clinical psychology training, and specific recommendations are discussed, including service user perspectives.

Originality/value – Service user and carer involvement has become mandatory in Health Care Professional Council-approved training programmes for mental health professionals, yet if and how learning occurs is poorly understood in this context. This study makes an important contribution in evaluating outcomes of service user and carer involvement in clinical psychology training by advancing theoretical understanding of the learning processes involved. The authors are unaware of similar work.