About SUI
Service user involvement is about making sure that the views of the people who use the services are heard; empowering clients to be partners in the planning of services and challenging poor practice. It is the active participation of people who because they have used services, can bring their knowledge and experience to contribute to the design, planning, delivery and evaluation of services.
This includes all those affected by substance misuse, such as the individual user, their family, carers and friends.
There are a number of levels at which clients of a service can get involved in the development and delivery of treatment.
They are:
Level 1 – Individual Care
· Opportunities to engage in treatment are offered (E.g. care planning)
· Advocacy is available to individuals around their treatment and care
· Service users are aware of their rights and responsibilities whilst in treatment
Level 2 – Service Provision
Opportunities exist for:
· feedback from service users about their own care and treatment
· review the quality of the service they are using; especially around issues of concern
· involvement in the development of the service (e.g representatives attending management meetings or focus groups)
Level 3 – Strategic
· Consultations and reviews are carried out where groups or individual service users can give opinions on the quality or developments of local services
· Groups and individuals are linked to regional and national networks
· Involvement and partnership in DAAT functions (E.g. tendering, performance, strategic functions)
The Birmingham Drug & Alcohol Action Team aims to ensure that treatment services develop strategies that link to a peer represented structure, seeing service user involvement feeding into the National Treatment Agency regional structure. There is a central record of all consultation and research in Birmingham, to minimise duplication, avoid ‘consultation fatigue’ and ensure user involvement is transparent and evidenced for outcomes.
There are a number of options for consulting, engaging and involving with Service User Involvement. The below diagram outlines the methods of service user involvement within Birmingham.
How is Service User Involvement beneficial?
Service User Involvement (SUI) is beneficial to the service user because it provides individuals with a chance to raise issues and help to get involved in treatment decisions that potentially help to improve services.
Individuals are given the opportunity to share their knowledge and past experience of what they feel works and what doesn’t work. This creates opportunities to influence the way in which a service is delivered.
Service providers also benefit from SUI by learning more about the experience of users and carers and using this information to improve their service provision to best meet the user’s needs. The Birmingham Drug and Alcohol Action Team are keen to support providers in developing service user involvement within their organisation. Each provider within Birmingham now has a service user involvement lead, and receives support in developing user involvement for their organisation.
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