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This study explores staff perceptions of the organizational and behavioral conditions required to normalize SDM within CIP processes in Sweden. Three focus group interviews were conducted with mental health and social care staff in three sites. Data were analyzed qualitatively, using constructs from Normalization Process Theory. Largely, there was shared validation of SDM-CIP, indicating high coherence. Generally, commitment was expressed to strengthen the conditions for implementation (reflecting the construct cognitive participation), by challenging attitudes and establishing effective roles. Inadequate infrastructure limited conditions for collective action for realizing SDM-CIP. The findings highlight a need for cross-organizational staff training and supportive infrastructure.

Background: Despite the evident trend in health research to emphasise co-production approaches, there is a lack of established, comprehensive and concrete strategies and evaluation methods to effectively guide and assess them. This project aimed to develop, validate, and test a toolkit designed to enhance and evaluate co-productions in mental health research. The toolkit includes practical evaluation tools, such as a structured questionnaire and tailored interview guides, to support the initiation of research projects and assess the involvement, process and impact of co-production efforts.

Methods: This project used a co-production approach with formative research design to develop a comprehensive toolkit for evaluating the process and impact of co-production in mental health research. Conducted between 2022 and 2024, the project involved iterative engagement with diverse stakeholder groups, providing a dynamic testbed for developing, validating, and field-testing the instruments. The paper outlines the four-phase process: (1) toolkit generation, (2) validation, (3) field-testing, and (4) completion, detailing how the co-production approach shaped the toolkit’s design, relevance, usability, and rigor.

Results: The result of this project is a structured, practical, and comprehensive co-production evaluation toolkit designed specifically for mental health research, potentially involving a wide range of partnerships. The toolkit includes a project initiation guide, a process-oriented survey and interview-guide for mid- and post-project evaluations, and an impact-focused post-project group interview guide.

Conclusions: The findings address a critical gap in mental health research by developing a structured, practical, and comprehensive co-production evaluation toolkit. The toolkit offers comprehensive strategies for evaluating involvement and both the processes and impacts of co-production throughout a project's lifecycle.

The integration of peer support workers (PSW) into the mental health services workforce has offered additional avenues to strengthen service provision. In Sweden, the availability of peer support workers has grown significantly over the past decade, yet there has been insufficient investigation into their organization and implementation. Consequently, there is a growing need for further research into the current state of peer support within the Swedish context. To examine stakeholders’ perspectives on the current state of peer support within the context of Swedish mental health services. In this qualitative study, a purposeful sampling method was employed in order to recruit 30 stakeholders, including peer support workers (n = 17) within mental health services, county council and municipal officials (n = 8), and representatives from user organizations (n = 5). The informants took part in focus groups or semi-structured individual interviews. The results highlight key factors from stakeholders for advancing peer support, providing PSWs with career paths and skill development, and advocating to top-level authorities. Organizational structures need to support sustainability, with Sweden's user organizations playing a crucial role to mitigate peer drifting. Long-term success relies on secure employment and a clear implementation strategy. The physical work environment shapes peer support implementation and requires clearly defined work roles. Navigating mental health services was viewed as challenging. According to the results, it requires stakeholders to balance perspectives and address feelings of inadequacy among PSWs, underscoring the need to legitimize the PSW profession in mental health care. To ensure genuine progress in the current organization of peer support, this work role must become a foundational aspect of service delivery, rather than merely an add-on, to foster the development of a more recovery-oriented mental health service in Sweden.

Background: The purpose of this paper is to outline the protocol for the research program "UserInvolve", with the aim of developing sustainable, service user involvement practices in mental health services in Sweden.

Methods: This protocol outlines the knowledge gap and aim of the UserInvolve-program. It further provides an overview of the research infrastructure, with specific focus on the organization and management of the program as well as the design of the six underlying research projects. These six research projects form the core of the UserInvolve-program and will be carried out during a six-year period (2022–2027). The projects are focused on examining articulations of experiential knowledge in user collectives, on four specific user involvement interventions (shared decision-making, peer support, user-focused monitoring, and systemic involvement methods) and on developing theory and method on co-production in mental health research and practice.

Results or conclusion: The knowledge gained through the co-production approach will be disseminated throughout the program years, targeting service users, welfare actors and the research community. Based on these research activities, our impact goals relate to strengthening the legitimacy of and methods for co-production in the mental health research and practice field.