Research strategies for consumer empowerment of people with severe mental illness

Abstract

Research concerning the care and treatment of people with severe mental illness has not been consonant with the well-established emphasis on consumer empowerment in social work and the psychiatric rehabilitation field. This article provides a set of research strategies that would help bridge the gap. We argue that research should amplify "the voice of the consumer" by attending to the context of research, the vantage point, the process of formulating research questions, the selection of interventions to be tested, the selection of outcomes and measures, and the dissemination of research results.