RESEARCH IN PROGRESS. Professor Urban Markström from Umeå University is on tour with his fellow researchers in Sweden. In a unique research project designed with representatives from the user movement, voices are now being gathered on local user involvement work. The aim is to gain an understanding of how the user movement, municipalities, and regions feel that regional work on overall user involvement is functioning across the country.
Urban, you are currently traveling around Sweden collecting data on local user involvement work. What kind of information are you looking for?
That's right! My colleagues and I are currently collecting data through both physical visits and digital interviews. We are primarily interested in the activities and forums that exist around user involvement at the system level in municipalities and regions, and what different people and organizations think about the work that is being done (and not being done) to strengthen overall user involvement.
Who are you meeting?
We are mainly meeting representatives and key figures from user organizations, municipalities, and regions. We have selected ten locations in the country that we are studying as a kind of “mini-Sweden.”
How do you hope to use the material?
We hope that the results will provide an important basis for developing and improving user involvement around the country. Once we have analyzed the material, we plan to publish our findings in academic journals and also as popular science texts. We will then discuss our findings in various contexts, such as conferences and our own seminar series, Forum UserInvolve.
How can user associations contribute to this?
–The experiences of user organizations are an important part of the data we collect, and they are also important as discussion partners in the subsequent discussions that need to take place once the results have been compiled.
Is this a typical study for those of you who work at UserInvolve, or is it an unusual initiative?
–It is typical in the sense that we are used to conducting studies with this type of setup, with a selection of different organizations and where we gather information through interviews. However, it is a little new for many of us to work so closely with people from the user movement and from the organizations themselves. Much of the design, in terms of selecting locations and choosing questions, has been developed in collaboration with a reference group that includes a lot of wise people. Hopefully, this will make the study more relevant.
Data collection is both time-consuming and resource-intensive, but it's worth it!
What is the most enjoyable and the most difficult thing about traveling around and conducting interview studies in this way?
–The most enjoyable thing is, of course, meeting our interviewees in their home environment! There are also lots of interesting conversations between interviews. There aren't many difficulties, but it's clear that data collection is both time-consuming and resource-intensive, with a lot of preparation work and sometimes long journeys. But it's worth it!
What is your role in this?
–I have overall responsibility for UserInvolve, which is the research program that this study is part of and in which NSPH is a partner. In the project, I am part of the research team that is jointly responsible for data collection, analysis, and compilation of the results. The project also includes a similar study of user involvement at the system level nationally, a literature study of user involvement at the system level, and a study of user involvement in the field of mental health at the policy level.
