PhD defence Reine Marie Dorothée Ramaekers

Keywords: Depression treatment, Stakeholder involvement, Efficacy-effectiveness gap, Participatory research

"Mind The Map: Navigating mental health treatment with stakeholders on board"

Many people with mental health issues, and particularly depression, do not get better, even when effective treatments exist. This gap between what works in research and what happens in real life is the starting point of this dissertation. To understand why this gap exists, people most directly involved - clients, their loved ones, clinicians, and researchers – were asked what they think makes treatment successful, why people drop out, and why people do not get the help they need to begin with. The experiences and perspectives of these different groups turned out to be contrasting and therefore all uniquely valuable, even though “lived experience” is often overlooked in research. Clients being part of all parts of the research process, could make research into mental health treatment more motivating and relevant to real life. By bringing different voices to the table, this research aims to make mental health care better suited to the people it is actually meant to help.

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