Creating Equality for those in Crisis

The 21st century has seen an increasing focus on the concept of co-production in seeking to tackle the tokenistic approach often taken by services to recovery in mental health. It originated from the scholarly work of Elinor Ostrom in America in the 1970’s and was further developed through the works of Edgar Cahn. In a bid to create a service that is more recovery orientated, many community mental health services have adopted co-production as a foundation for all work they conduct with service users/family members and carers. It is reported that co-production can be transformative in practice if done correctly. More specifically, this can include circumstances where individuals are presenting in crisis. However, there is a paucity of research/perspectives in this specific area. The aim of this perspective paper is to highlight such literature whilst also debating the ethical considerations to co-production within the acute inpatient mental health services.