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Research Article: Youth partnership in suicide prevention research: moving beyond the safety discourse

Date Published: 2023-10-27

Abstract:
Objective In this communication article, we discuss coproduction in suicide prevention research, with an emphasis on involving young people. We critically reflect on the lessons we have learned by working alongside young people, and how these lessons may be useful to other research teams. Summary The meaningful involvement of young people in the design, implementation and translation of mental health research has received significant attention over the last decade. For most funding bodies, the involvement of patients and the public in the planning and delivery of research is advised and, in many cases, mandatory. When it comes to suicide prevention research, however, things are slightly different in practice. Involvement of young people in suicide prevention research has often been considered a controversial, unfeasible and even risky endeavour. In our experiences of working in this field, such concerns are expressed by funders, Higher Education Health and Safety committees and practitioners. By presenting an example from our research where the involvement of young people as experts by experience was integral, we highlight key lessons learnt that could maximise the potential of youth partnership in suicide prevention research. These lessons take on particular importance in mental health research against the background of long-entrenched power differences and the silencing of service user voices. Professional knowledge, obtained through education and vocational training, has historically taken priority over experiential knowledge obtained through lived experience, in psychiatric practice and research. Although this hierarchy has widely been challenged, any account of coproduction in mental health research is positioned against that background, and the remnants of those inequitable power relationships arguably take on greater resonance in suicide prevention research and require careful consideration to ensure meaningful involvement. Conclusion We conclude that progress in suicide research cannot be fulfilled without the meaningful involvement of, and partnership with, young people with lived experience.

Introduction:
Involvement, coproduction, codesign—does terminology matter? Involvement has been described as ‘an evolving concept in the mental healthcare literature’ 1 and is a term that encompasses service user involvement in both mental healthcare and research. In terms of the former, moves towards involving service users in their own care and decision-making ensued from both deinstitutionalisation and the political and philosophical critiques of psychiatry that emerged through the 1960s and 1970s in Europe and North…

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