Community co-production engaging youth with mental health problems. Is equal participation possible?

ABSTRACTCommunity co-production is intended to improve public democracy as well as welfare economy. This single case study is a ‘most likely’ case for success and explores how experiences of equal participation among youth with mental health problems take place in a partnership between a social enterprise and a Danish municipality. I explore how the democratic dimension is configured in relation to a focus on service production and efficiency. Applying the multidimensional model of ‘the collaborative turn’ I find that equal participation of vulnerable citizens can be enhanced through co-production when youth with mental health problems equally partake in activities including supervisors from the municipality and a blended group of local participants. This, however, provide a dilemma. As part of their thriving, young people need to take an independent stand on things and interact in different transforming roles. But for the municipality, participation is a means to achieve municipal goals and supervisors can set standards for the participation of young people that contribute to stigma and inhibits the equal participation.KEYWORDS: Community co-productionyouth with mental health problemscritical single case studyequal participation AcknowledgementsThe author expresses her appreciation to Professor Linda Lundgaard Andersen Roskilde University Denmark for her valuable comments and the evaluation partnership for contribution to the data-collection.Disclosure StatementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Additional informationFundingThis data collection was funded by the Danish National Board of Social Services.