Participation and participatory research in the field of disability and recovery

In this symposium the presenters will describe experiences with concepts of participation and participatory research in the field of disability and recovery. They will report on the research project “Community Participation... [ view full abstract ]

In this symposium the presenters will describe experiences with concepts of participation and participatory research in the field of disability and recovery.

They will report on the research project “Community Participation and Support for and with persons with disabilities”, which was a European project that took place from 2012 - 2014. It concerned a multisite study involving the cities of Amersfoort and Maastricht in the Netherlands, Budapest in Hungary and Tallinn in Estonia. Target groups involved mainly people with psychiatric disabilities. The study focussed on participation in the neighbourhood, (paid) labour and social networks.

The project intended to develop more knowledge about supporting citizens in vulnerable positions with regard to recovery, citizenship and community participation, seen in the context of EU-policy and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The aim was to collect and develop knowledge for professionals about effective components of community support programmes, with a focus on increasing empowerment and self-support.

Jean Pierre Wilken will talk about the methodology: the participatory model of Communities of Practice and Research (CoPR). In this model, knowledge from three sources is combined: professional knowledge, experiential knowledge and theoretical knowledge. The aim is to improve current policies and practices.

Zsolt Bugarszki will share some experiences with the process of collecting narrative data, expressing the story and the voice of service users. He will highlight the method of identifying key persons in the social network of the user, using a snow ball approach. This contextual approach provides valuable insights in the lived experience of persons with a disability and their environment.