DAY TWENTY FOUR: Doing to, doing for, doing with

Today's two meetings concluded this 'scoping' part of the trip where I try to get a snapshot of the co-production landscape over here in Australia. Over the month these meetings have been with people in roles of: consumer academics, a local department of health reform team, mental health service providers, academics, third sector organisations involved in health promotion or lived experience storytelling, other PhD students, clinicians and lived experience campaigners. (Though of course our many roles and identities are intersecting, something which challenges the premise of co-production where people are categorised into service 'users' and 'providers'). 

It's been a packed schedule and hearing all these perspectives has really helped me to think about all of the complexities of co-production in youth mental health. But, as is so often the case with learning, it has also left me feeling more aware of how much more there is to learn and understand. 

One of the fundamental ideas of increasing 'meaningful' youth participation in mental health service design/delivery is this facilitates a shift from passive to active. Instead of mental health treatment being 'done to' us it's something we 'do with' those providing services. Perhaps I'm just saturated in these themes but spotting this passive escalator 'being rested' as I left my last meeting made me chuckle and I decided to go and 'do' rest. 

On an earlier post I thought about the relationship between the occupational therapy principle of the human right to engage in 'meaningful' activity and this term in the co-production world. But of course even more fundamental to the core values of occupational therapy is the concept of 'doing' and the intrinsic therapeutic nature of (active) doing. I'm unsure if this is a true link or I'm just tired but I hope visiting some kangaroos in a national park will clear this up for me tomorrow.