Person-centered medicine: a partnership approach

Main Article Content

Janet Wallcraft
Michaela Amering
Sigrid Steffen
Salloum Ihsan

Abstract

Partnership is an essential aspect of person-centred medicine. This paper explores the definition of partnership, the challenges it presents for changing and improving healthcare system and some evidence of the benefits of partnership. There are now many examples of genuine partnership working and empowerment which have been achieved through the involvement of service user and family member organisations and leading individuals in various fields of medicine and some of these drawn from national and international sources for mental healthcare are presented. It is concluded that trialogue groups would help take this work forward.

Article Details

Section
Fourth Geneva Conference on Person-centered Medicine: Person-centered special developments
Author Biography

Janet Wallcraft, Centre for Mental Health Recovery, University of Hertfordshire; and Centre for Excellence in Interdisciplinary Mental Health, University of Birmingham

Janet Wallcraft has a BSc Hons (1st Class) in Science Technology & Society (1987)  and a Postgrad Diploma Social Sciences Research (1989) from Middlesex University, London, and PhD from South Bank University, London (2002) on mental health service users first experiences of breakdown and treatment. She is a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Mental Health Recovery, University of Hertfordshire, and an Honorary Fellow at the Centre for Excellence in Interdisciplinary Mental Health, University of Birmingham. She has been a long-term consultant and researcher on the experiences of people who use or receive mental health services, working for leading NGOs and Government organisations in England and Wales. 

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Wallcraft, J., Amering, M., Freidin, J., Davar, B., Froggatt, D., Jafri, H., Javed, A., Katontoka, S., Raja, S., Rataemane, S., Steffen, S., Tyano, S., Underhill, C., Wahlberg, H., Warner, R. & Herrman, H. (2011). Partnerships for better mental health worldwide: WPA recommendations on best practices in working with service users and family carers. World Psychiatry 10 (3) 229-236.

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