People who use mental health services are making a growing contribution to psychiatric research. At the same time clinical and academic mental health researchers are being increasingly required by funders to ensure that service users are involved in their research projects. Both of these books usefully address the challenges involved in this changing world of mental health research.

The Handbook of Service User Involvement in Mental Health Research (published in the World Psychiatric Association ‘Evidence and Experience in Psychiatry’ series) seeks to provide an historically informed, practical overview of what mental health service user involvement in research means and what it can achieve. It is aimed at researchers who are interested in understanding and involving people with experience of using mental health services as well as service users who are interested in becoming involved in research. Its 16 chapters, written by an impressive range of international researchers, service users and academics, cover issues such as context, principles, values, roles, methods and power as well as outlining the key ways in which service users can be involved in research – through consultation, collaboration and taking control of the research process. The book may be of interest to those wanting to understand what user involvement can mean as well as those who have experienced it and want to extend their knowledge and research skills. Its scope means that chapters are necessarily brief but references are provided to follow up on interesting debates and topics.

Barbara Schneider's Hearing (Our) Voices makes a usefully detailed contribution to understanding the whys and hows of service user research. In a careful, considered and accessibly critical way she overviews two participatory action research projects that she undertook in collaboration with members of Unsung Heroes, a peer support group of people who had a diagnosis of schizophrenia in Alberta, Canada. An in-depth account of the research which took place over a period of 8 years is given drawing on the testimonies of the service user and academic researchers involved. The projects focused on the experiences of people diagnosed with schizophrenia in respect of communicating with mental health professionals and housing. A range of research techniques – interviewing, focus groups, photo story and DVD-making – were used in these projects. In addition, the author describes how the projects worked to ensure that all those involved played a full part in disseminating the research findings as well as good practice guidance to general public, practitioner and research audiences. As a professor of communications studies and a parent of a son with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, Schneider brings perspectives to this work that are not usually found in research undertaken by the traditional mental health disciplines and the book is the stronger for this.