Involving Service Users in Social Work Education, Research and Policy

Kristel Driessens is Professor of Social Work at the University of Antwerp and Head of the Centre of Expertise Strength-based Social Work at the Karel de Grote University of Applied Sciences. She is coordinator of Bind-Kracht, a collaboration between service users living in poverty, lecturers and researchers, providing educational programmes for social workers. Vicky Lyssens-Danneboom is Senior Researcher in Qualitative Social Work Research at the Centre of Expertise Strength-based Social Work and Lecturer in the social work and socio-educational care work programmes at the Karel de Grote University of Applied Sciences.

1. Introduction - Kristel Driessens and Vicky Lyssens-Danneboom


Part 1: Collaborative models in social work education


2. The gap-mending concept: theory and practice - Cecilia Heule, Marcus Knutagård and Arne Kristiansen


3. Mending gaps in social work education in the UK - Helen Casey and Peter Beresford


4. Service users as tandem partners in social work education - Kristel Driessens, Vicky Lyssens- Danneboom, Wendy Peeters, Cindy Van Geldorp, Piet Vandenhende, Hilde Bloemen, Caro Bridts, Sascha Van Gijzel and Henrike Kowalk


5. Service users as supervisors in social work education: mending the gap of power relations - Mette Fløystad Kvammen and Tabitha Wright Nielsen


6. Involving students with mental health experience in social work education - Hubert Kaszyński and Olga Maciejewska


7. The living library in social work education - Robin Sen, Marianne Nylund, Ali Hayward, Rahul Pardasani, William Rivera and Michelle Kaila


8. Creating a platform together for the voice of the service user: inspiration for organising an event together with service users - Ruth Strudwick, Suzanna Pickering and Joep Holten


9. Reflections on inspiring conversations in social work education: the voices of Scottish experts by experience and Italian students - Susan Levy and Elena Cabiati with John Dow, Elinor Dowson, Keith Swankie and Gil Martin


10. Joint workshops with students and service users in social work education: experiences from Esslingen, Germany - Thomas Heidenreich and Marion Laging


11. Service users, students and staff: co-producing creative educational activities on a social work programme in the UK - Kieron Hatton, Kevin Holmes and Pete Shepherd


Part 2: Collaborative models in research and policy


12. The co-researcher role in the tension between recognition, co-option and tokenism - Ole Petter Askheim


13. Community of development: a model for inclusive learning, research and innovation - Jean Pierre Wilken, Ellen Witteveen, Carla van Slagmaat,


Sascha van Gijzel, Jeroen Knevel, Toinette Loeffen and Els Overkamp


14. Dialogue, skills and trust: some lessons learned from co-writing with service users - Sidsel Natland


15. Participatory pathways in social policymaking: between rhetoric and reality - Peter Beresford and Heidi Degerickx


16. Experiential knowledge as a driver of change - Har Tortike and Vicky Lyssens-Danneboom


Part 3: Reflective chapters


17. Experiences matter equally - Henrike Kowalk and Jenny Wetterling


18. Ethical issues in the meaningful involvement of service users as co-researchers - Hugh McLaughlin


19. Involving service users in social work education and research: is this structural social work? Kristel Driessens and Vicky Lyssens- Danneboom