‘Two sides of the one coin’: using reflection to examine co-production of human rights education within higher institutions in Ireland

Encompassing human rights-based approaches within mental health service delivery is essential to supporting the recovery of service users, their family members/carers/supporters. This is being increasingly led by social workers due to their role in responding to psychosocial challenges. This is seen in today’s mental health services through their work in safeguarding service users and addressing familial concerns regarding all aspects of life. It is also evidenced in their openness to the concept of personal recovery—a movement aimed at defending and improving human rights for service users and their family members/carers/supporters through the recognition of international legislation. Recent debates within social work education have explored whether our critical and radical roots are declining or absent in practice. One argument for this has been the increasing pressures coming from neoliberal policies. This paper describes how both authors approached several co-produced sessions with social work students at an Irish university regarding mental health recovery and social work. The authors provide insight into this approach, including a description and exploration of a model of reflexivity used during this process which can be used by other educators, students, and practitioners [CS is an Assistant Professor of Social Work,MJN is a Consumer Academic].