Key Findings

The key findings from the project included:

• The project has demonstrated how consumer participation in staff training through experiential learning may change workforce performance. It showed how this programme of experiential learning does achieve attitudinal change that motivates practice change.
• The simulation training programme demonstrated that it changed staff behaviour towards listening with the customer about the content of their voices. There was also some evidence here that staff respond in a timely manner with more willingness to help people with their distressing voices.
• The programme clearly shifts attitudes and staff service delivery in relation to front line worker interactions with mental health customers.
• In developing and adapting an experiential programme designed and delivered by customers that are stigmatised and traditionally thought of as difficult clients, we have demonstrated attitude shift in the workers and workplace practice. More than that, innovative training creates staff interest and confidence in working to satisfy what has previously been identified as ‘the difficult customer’. This is a proven way to address stigma and discrimination as direct contact with people who have experienced mental illness is the most effective in tackling stigma and discrimination associated with mental illness.
• A key to the success of the programme is an attitude of cooperation in seeking partnership with all who attend the training. By opening up respectful dialogue among voice hearers, consumers, health workers and others who attend training, we aim to bridge any perceived divide of perspective. This attitude in delivery is crucial to the successful learning outcomes of the programme.
• There remain barriers to effective consumer participation. Workplaces and workplace training programmes require further development into supporting consumer involvement in the delivery of workplace training. The effectiveness of simulation training is pivotal around excellence in consumer-led presentation skills and this ability is a high-level job in itself requiring individual support and development. This is pivotal for the effectiveness of a programme of simulation training.     

Key Recommendations

The key recommendations from the project were:

Consumer involvement | The recommendation is that where industry 'hears the voices' of customer criticism regarding service attitude, that educators consider a programme of experiential learning that involves the consumer in the design and delivery of a programme of learning.

Improving interaction with customers | Where businesses identify a need for improvement in the human interaction with their customers, that need should be considered equally along with skill and knowledge in the design and measurable outcome of training programmes developed for their industry. Both consumers and staff benefit through the letting go of assumption or personal opinion and getting to understand one another through effective opinion survey and reflective dialogue.

Use simulations in tertiary teaching | Simulations offer real experiences for learners. This project evaluates a simulation programme for mental health workers who interact with people who 'hear voices'. It will be helpful for tertiary teachers who want to use simulation in their courses.

Use principles of andragogy | Workplace educators are encouraged to use principles of andragogy (methods and principles used in adult education), as distinct from pedagogy (theory and practice of teaching children and tertiary students), for effective adult learning.