Testimonials

Adrian Fisher
As an individual user involvement has meant a great deal to me. It has made sense of my experience of depression and given me the power to speak about my mental health openly. I have been a member of Suresearch for the past 4 years, I have met some great people and made some really good friends. Suresearch is now over 6 years old, members of this network have had good and bad experiences of using services and often share these views with the group. People can come to as many meetings as they wish - we are always open to new members.
Suresearch has introduced me to the idea of creating chances for sevice users to get involved in teaching and learning and research. We undertake research and deliver training and education. Suresearch members recieve training on how to carry out teaching learning roles. Those organisations who want to work with us find that using people with direct experience of mental health services make for better training sessions. We encourage users to take on teaching and presentation work and attend conferences. Our monthy meetings are to exchange information on current projects, future projects and liasise with other User groups, organisations and Universities. Travel expenses are paid for members attending the meetings and we have a policy to pay service users the same rate as University staff when they teach and research.

Colin Gell
I have been involved in user involvement for over 20 years helping to found the Nottingham Advocacy Group. The first user led project in the UK.
I have worked with many projects to help develop user involvement including Trent Regional Health Authority, Kings College London, Sainsbury Centre, Health Advisory Service, NIMHE East Midlands and several others. I am also a founder member of UKAN and a founder member of Suresearch - I have been involved with the University of Birmingham for 10 years.
I am currently involved in the Peoples Forum in Leicestershire, interviewing for membership of the new user network. I am also an Advisor to the Southern Ireland User Network.

Mary Nettle
I was lucky enough to be elected Chair of the European Network of Users (ex) Users and Survivors of Psychiatry (ENUSP) at a joint meeting with WNUSP our world equivalent. This meeting took place in 2003 in Denmark a truly unforgettable experience. I would love to have another meeting may be just Europe soon. This will help me to be democratic as our constitution states that votes should be held with 2 delegates per country every 4 years!