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Abstract

This report is the result of a participatory community planning project designed to ensure that participants and family members of the Canadian Mental Health Association Vancouver Fraser (CMHA-VF) become actively engaged in the decision making, planning, program development, and evaluation for the Agency. The project included the formation of the Participant and Family Voice Committee (PFVC), the development of the Participant and Family Voice Committee Guiding Principles (PFVC-GP), fifteen committee meetings, two Participant and Family Voice World Café (PFV-WC) sessions, a World Café Feedback session, a workshop at the 2015 Psychosocial Rehabilitation National Conference, a presentation at the CMHA-VF Annual General Meeting, and several small group focus sessions. The report reviews the literature regarding the importance of participant and family involvement, a brief look at the previous initiative and workbook designed to promote participant involvement, and explores why these interventions were not successful. The report presents the findings of the PFV-WC indicating that self-stigma, stigma within the Agency, and social stigma are the greatest barriers to involvement in the Agency and advises that a focus on the key themes of education, connection, diversity of roles, skills and assets, and family, will enable the Agency to address stigma to create a community where participants feel empowered to become involved. The findings of the PFV-WC also indicate that the mental health language and terminology is problematic and that work must be done to ensure that participants, family members, staff, and Board members are using the same definitions. The findings of the PFVC indicate funding must be established to support an on-going project to support involvement, significant time should be allocated, people experiencing mental illness must have supported space for contributions, and that materials should be accessible and presented in multiple formats. The report also highlights instances of successful participant and family involvement. In conclusion, short and long-term recommendations specific to the CMHA-VF are presented to promote and sustain participant and family member involvement.