User Interviews User Evaluation – Sommerstua treffsted, Trondheim municipality

Sommerstua is a service for people with mental health problems, who are in need of a place to socialize in the city. As a part of strengthening service user involvement in welfare services, Trondheim wanted an evaluation of the meeting place. The head of unit wanted to take a look at future possibilities, as well as analyze the changes that took place after the service’s merge with the meeting place Hjorten.

Additionally, there were to be created a platform for dialogue, so that the employees and users may evaluate the service, and thus find new opportunities for Sommerstua. This would lay the grounds for service user involvement.

A total of 29 users, 6 employees, together with the Head of Unit, were interviewed. The conversations found that there had been both positive and negative changes after the merge. There were revealed certain challenges tied to the users´ influence on the service, as well as some problems in being a low threshold service for people in a crisis.

Author:
Heidi Westerlund

Report in Norwegian:
Bruker Spør Bruker-evaluering – Sommerstua treffsted, Trondheim kommune (2008)