Involving service users and carers in your teaching

How are service users and carers involved?

People may be involved in a range of work across a school or programme, such as curriculum and resource development, staff recruitment, admissions, teaching, assessment, management and quality assurance, and research.

Direct involvement in delivering the curriculum can take a variety of forms, including participation in e-learning such as online discussions, and live performances of plays, poetry, or music, as well as taking part as guest speakers, lecturers, and trained facilitators.

Click on Barbara's picture to listen

“Perhaps there is a section of your module that doesn’t really come alive; your students see it as a chore? Our members can demonstrate what it’s like for real people to face daily life with a particular illness or disability. We can give a formal lecture but, mostly, we want to tell our stories or answer students’ questions freely, encouraging as much interaction as possible.

You might want to try less traditional methods, such as role playing a scenario, interviewing the speaker, or having along more than one member of the group – a service user and his or her carer for instance – who could discuss their experiences in hospital, in the community, and managing their way through social and medical services. “