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Accessible summary: What is known on the subject?: Contemporary mental health policy stipulates consumer participation in all aspects of mental health services including service evaluation and other forms of mental health research.Research is identified as underpinning quality mental health services, and therefore, consumers researchers could enhance the mental health sector by contributing to the quality, credibility and relevance of mental health research. What this paper adds to existing knowledge?: Non‐consumer researchers generally supported the concept of a consumer expert reference group for researchers at the individual and institutional level.A consumer expert reference group should reflect diversity and offer expertise relevant to the topic of research and may represent one way to normalize partnerships with consumer researchers and realize the benefits they can bring to research. What are the implications for practice?: Quality mental health services are underpinned by robust research evidence. It is crucial that consumers are active participants in research activity.The availability of a consumer expert reference group could facilitate collaborations between consumer and non‐consumer researchers and contribute to a stronger consumer focus embedded in mental health research. Introduction: Contemporary mental health policy identifies consumers as active participants in all aspects of mental health services from design to evaluation. Consumer researchers should be actively involved in mental health research and contribute to quality service delivery. Aim: To gain a snapshot of mental health researcher views on strategies for increasing research by or with consumers in mental health through the establishment of an Expert Consumer Researcher Group (ECRG). Methods: Cross‐sectional survey of 41 non‐consumer mental health researchers from Australia or New Zealand. Results: The introduction of an ECRG was considered an effective strategy for linking consumer and non‐consumer researchers and providing specialist advice on research design and methodology. The most suitable location for this group was identified as within consumer advocacy agencies (71%), universities (66%) or research funding bodies (66%). Participants rated their likelihood of seeking advice from the ECRG as high. Discussion: Research participants supported the value of an ECRG. They emphasized the importance of ensuring the group reflected a diversity of views and offered specialized expertise related to the specific topic. The ECRG could benefit both individual researchers and larger research organizations. Implications for practice: An ECRG could facilitate collaborations with consumer researchers and in turn enhance the quality of mental health research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accessible summary What is known about the subject? Citizenship is an important yet largely overlooked concept within psychiatric and mental health nursing practice, Many service users are subject to legally mandated restrictions that place conditions on their rights and responsibilities as citizens., What this paper adds to existing knowledge? Even though service users have legal status as citizens, they continue to experience many conditions on their rights and responsibilities., Concerns about services users' trustworthiness and doubts about their levels of insight impact on their status as full citizens., What are the implications for practice? Nurses' understandings of the conditions placed on the citizenship rights and responsibilities of service users will ensure inclusive and less restrictive care and treatment, Integration of the principles of therapeutic reciprocity and procedural justice within practice will help nurses balance both the rights of services users and legal restrictions on their liberty and autonomy, Abstract Introduction Service users have long been lobbying for equal participation as citizens, yet citizenship is an important and largely overlooked concept within nursing education and practice. Aims The study explored service users' understandings of their rights and responsibilities of citizenship and the conditions placed on these. Methods A total of 17 service users participated in semi-structured interviews. Isin's theory of the content of citizenship was used to analyze the data using a framework approach. Results Service users experience conditional citizenship that includes barriers to their participation and their rights and responsibilities that others in society enjoy. Discussion When the world of the service user is constructed through the language of the biomedical model, nurses may unwittingly reinforce psychiatric labels and thus perpetuate the stereotype that service users lack the competence to fully enact their rights and responsibilities. Implications for practice When providing care, nurses should incorporate the notion of therapeutic jurisprudence and the principles of reciprocity, procedural justice and the implementation of advanced directives to reduce conditions on service users' status as citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]