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How People Can Benefit from Mental Health Consumer-Run Organizations

  • Original Paper
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American Journal of Community Psychology

Abstract

The goal of this study is to develop a more comprehensive theoretical understanding of the processes by which people can benefit from mental health consumer-run organizations (CROs). To accomplish this goal, the concept of roles is used to create a preliminary framework that draws connections between several established theoretical explanations. To ground theory development in empirical data, 194 CRO members from 20 CROs answered open-ended questions about what personal changes occurred as a result of their CRO involvement and what CRO participation experiences enabled personal change. Data analysis led to the identification of 18 personal change categories and 7 experiences that led to change. These categories were integrated into the preliminary theoretical framework, which needed to be extended to accommodate all categories. While inevitably tentative, the final conceptualization provides a more comprehensive understanding of the processes by which people can benefit from CRO participation.

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Acknowledgments

Support for this research comes from Kansas Social and Rehabilitation Services, Division of Mental Health and NIMH (grant number 5T32MH018834-18). The author would like to thank Matt Shepherd for his help with data collection and Greg Meissen, Lou Medvene, Sharon Iorio, Deac Dorr, and Darcee Datteri for their feedback on earlier versions of this work.

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  1. The Pennsylvania State University, 135 E. Nittany Avenue, Suite 402, State College, PA, 16801, USA

    Louis D. Brown

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  1. Louis D. Brown
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Correspondence to Louis D. Brown.

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Brown, L.D. How People Can Benefit from Mental Health Consumer-Run Organizations. Am J Community Psychol 43, 177–188 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-009-9233-0

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