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Epistemic injustice and mental health research: A pragmatic approach to working with lived experience expertise
“Epistemic injustice” refers to how people from marginalized groups are denied opportunities to create knowledge and derive meaning from their experiences. In the mental health field, epistemic injustice occurs in both research and service delivery systems and particularly impacts people from racial...
Autores principales: | , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2023
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10086175/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37056406 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1114725 |
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author | Okoroji, Celestin Mackay, Tanya Robotham, Dan Beckford, Davino Pinfold, Vanessa |
author_facet | Okoroji, Celestin Mackay, Tanya Robotham, Dan Beckford, Davino Pinfold, Vanessa |
author_sort | Okoroji, Celestin |
collection | PubMed |
description | “Epistemic injustice” refers to how people from marginalized groups are denied opportunities to create knowledge and derive meaning from their experiences. In the mental health field, epistemic injustice occurs in both research and service delivery systems and particularly impacts people from racialized communities. Lived experience involvement and leadership are often proposed as methods of combatting epistemic injustice, a tool for ensuring the views of people at the center of an issue are heard and can inform decision-making. However, this approach is not without challenges. In this paper, we draw on our work as intermediary organizations that center lived experience perspectives to challenge epistemic injustice. We highlight two problems we have identified in working in the mental health research field: “elite capture” and “epistemic exploitation”. We believe that these problems are barriers to the radical and structural change required for epistemic justice to occur. We propose a pragmatic approach to addressing these issues. Based on our work we suggest three considerations for researchers and our own organizations to consider when involving people with lived experience. These include reflecting on the purpose of creating knowledge, with a focus on impact. Embedding lived experience roles, with appropriate employment, support and remuneration, and acknowledging that it may be necessary to work alongside existing systems as a “critical friend” while developing new spaces and structures for alternative forms of knowledge. Finally, the mental health research system needs to change. We believe these three considerations will help us better move toward epistemic justice in mental health research. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-10086175 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2023 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-100861752023-04-12 Epistemic injustice and mental health research: A pragmatic approach to working with lived experience expertise Okoroji, Celestin Mackay, Tanya Robotham, Dan Beckford, Davino Pinfold, Vanessa Front Psychiatry Psychiatry “Epistemic injustice” refers to how people from marginalized groups are denied opportunities to create knowledge and derive meaning from their experiences. In the mental health field, epistemic injustice occurs in both research and service delivery systems and particularly impacts people from racialized communities. Lived experience involvement and leadership are often proposed as methods of combatting epistemic injustice, a tool for ensuring the views of people at the center of an issue are heard and can inform decision-making. However, this approach is not without challenges. In this paper, we draw on our work as intermediary organizations that center lived experience perspectives to challenge epistemic injustice. We highlight two problems we have identified in working in the mental health research field: “elite capture” and “epistemic exploitation”. We believe that these problems are barriers to the radical and structural change required for epistemic justice to occur. We propose a pragmatic approach to addressing these issues. Based on our work we suggest three considerations for researchers and our own organizations to consider when involving people with lived experience. These include reflecting on the purpose of creating knowledge, with a focus on impact. Embedding lived experience roles, with appropriate employment, support and remuneration, and acknowledging that it may be necessary to work alongside existing systems as a “critical friend” while developing new spaces and structures for alternative forms of knowledge. Finally, the mental health research system needs to change. We believe these three considerations will help us better move toward epistemic justice in mental health research. Frontiers Media S.A. 2023-03-28 /pmc/articles/PMC10086175/ /pubmed/37056406 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1114725 Text en Copyright © 2023 Okoroji, Mackay, Robotham, Beckford and Pinfold. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
spellingShingle | Psychiatry Okoroji, Celestin Mackay, Tanya Robotham, Dan Beckford, Davino Pinfold, Vanessa Epistemic injustice and mental health research: A pragmatic approach to working with lived experience expertise |
title | Epistemic injustice and mental health research: A pragmatic approach to working with lived experience expertise |
title_full | Epistemic injustice and mental health research: A pragmatic approach to working with lived experience expertise |
title_fullStr | Epistemic injustice and mental health research: A pragmatic approach to working with lived experience expertise |
title_full_unstemmed | Epistemic injustice and mental health research: A pragmatic approach to working with lived experience expertise |
title_short | Epistemic injustice and mental health research: A pragmatic approach to working with lived experience expertise |
title_sort | epistemic injustice and mental health research: a pragmatic approach to working with lived experience expertise |
topic | Psychiatry |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10086175/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37056406 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1114725 |
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