‘Not just another method’: Using co-production to support a mental health café in Ireland
/This article was featured in the SCDC Weekly - 29th May 2024.
Co-production can be a transformative way to shift the balance of power in service design. So how do we make sure it’s treated as an ethical approach and not just another method of engagement?
That's the question the co-produced development of Galway Community Café shows, highlighting how this free, peer-led, out-of-hours space for adults struggling with mental health issues was designed and run by people with lived experience.
The café provides a safe, non-judgemental place for individuals to come and have a chat with a trained member of staff. The team have lived experience of using mental health services and can provide peer support or signposting for customers experiencing emotional distress.
The cafe began through collaboration between local business, mental health services and the local community. From there a key moment was the Áit Eile Co-op being resourced to bring people together to co-create what it could look like and learning from other best practice.
This is where valuing lived experience was crucial, and why "you need real commitment from top-level leadership and for people to step out of the professional persona, be willing to share assets, and take mutual responsibility."
Fundamentally, co-production is an undertaking in the unknown and ceding power is an essential first step: "You might need to be a lot more accepting of unknowable outcomes than is comfortable - which can be difficult to square with management cultures of funders and providers.
"Provide users with a blank canvas - let them sketch, colour in between the lines, then all autograph it together."
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