Participatory Action Research

"Essentially Participatory Action Research (PAR) is research which involves all relevant parties in actively examining together current action (which they experience as problematic) in order to change and improve it. They do this by critically reflecting on the historical, political, cultural, economic, geographic and other contexts which make sense of it. … Participatory Action Research (PAR) is not just research which is hoped that will be followed by action. It is action which is researched, changed and re-researched, within the research process by participants. Nor is it simply an exotic variant of consultation. Instead, it aims to be active co-research, by and for those to be helped. Nor can it be used by one group of people to get another group of people to do what is thought best for them - whether that is to implement a central policy or an organisational or service change. Instead it tries to be a genuinely democratic or non-coercive process whereby those to be helped, determine the purposes and outcomes of their own inquiry." - Wadsworth, Y. (1998)

The key elements of Participatory Action Research:

Participatory – People who access the mental health service and people who deliver the Mental Health service are both participants and co-researchers.

Action – Action is not just changes that are made, but also the formation of new knowledge and new understandings by both groups of people that currently hold differing perspectives of mental health service delivery.

Research – We use research methodologies of triangulation of data, and test and re-test for validity checking. Grounded Theory methodology and principles are also extensively used.

The subject of the research is the service system of mental health service delivery.

Participatory Action Research Team

Team Leader and Coordinator           
Jon Kroschel