Action for change in the UK: Thirty years of the user/survivor movement

Any observer of mental health services in the United Kingdom over the last thirty years would have to acknowledge the important changes that have taken place in the role of service users. Service users are now extensively involved: as individuals in their own care and treatment and collectively in the development of mental health services. It is now scarcely possible to undertake major initiatives in the mental health sphere without involving service users. Service users have moved from being a notable absence to a significant presence in all important mental health matters. Listening to service users has become absolutely necessary.