Medarbeidere med egenerfaring for økt brukermedvirkning - En ...

English AbstractUser participation is a concept that increasingly is about to be adopted in agendas in healthinstitutions, and the topic is actualized at all levels from the political, right down to theindividual user participation. Some institutions have hired people into the health service,based on their previous experience as a user of social or health services. Clinic for MentalHealth at Sørlandet Hospital has since 2006 had employed so-called experiencedconsultants who work with user participation at all levels in the clinic, and the clinic iskind of a pioneer in this field in Norway. This paper seeks to describe the experience of theconsultants' experiences in their positions, and see this in the perspective of theorganization they belong to, and professional bureaucracies.The experience consultants express mostly positive experiences with their position and theopportunity to be a positive contribution to the user participation at different levels in theclinic. They feel that they have a free role without too much control from the management;this leads to that they can move in different parts of the organization. This free roleprovides, on the other hand, a positive effect in that the various professional groups seemsto be considered experienced consultant to belong to the organization's operational core,which involves acceptance of receipt of their advice. This gives the experienced consultanta unique opportunity to influence at all user levels, in all parts of the organization.However, to establish a system of staff experienced consultants takes time, and six yearsafter the "start" it’s called for a clearer framework for the experience consultant's role andthe desire for greater marketing from management.The paper concludes that experienced consultants in the form it’s seen in KPH, is a goodinitiative for increased user participation at all levels. It may, if considering anestablishment of something similar in other organizations, be appropriate to be aware ofMintzberg's theory of professional bureaucracies, allowing experienced consultants to actfreely in their duties from the start.In terms of quality and use of any models for quality improvement, user participation isincreasingly claiming its space. KPH uses the Danish Quality Model, and the employmentof experienced consultants can claim to fulfill many of the standards that deal with userparticipation in this model.Tags: user involvement, experienced consultant, experience expertise, professionalbureaucracies5