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The Canadian Mental Health Association should examine power relationships among consumers and staff, says its National Consumer Advisory Council.
The council’s discussion paper, 'Power, Paternalism and Partnerships,' is based on a document from the United Kingdom called 'Power in Strange Places.'
The new document asks more than a dozen questions of CMHA related to three areas:
• Power imbalance and the need to recognize when control is being exercised over consumers
• Paternalism and the need to avoid tokenism in consumer participation
• Partnerships between consumers, staff and volunteers in the recovery process
The authors say that answering the questions posed in the paper will help CMHA better understand its role in serving mental health consumers.
Further, the council recommends that CMHA adopt a series of steps for consumer involvement in order to recognize and overcome power imbalances. These steps include creating a forum to introduce ideas about consumer involvement, allowing consumers to develop their own initiatives and networking with colleagues to spread these ideas and initiatives.
See 'Power, Paternalism and Partnerships,' June 2007, at www.cmha.ca