Staff Stories: What I’ve Learned about Co-Production

Our former colleague and Intern Dimah has written about co-production, drawing on her own experience and her time at MAC-UK.

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I have a long history with mental health services. Over the years, I’ve seen the very bad — and a little bit of the good.

Some services can be so poor that they’re actually traumatising, and can leave service users struggling for many years after.

After everything I’d been through, I decided I needed to take action. I wanted to use my experiences to help improve mental health services — both new and existing ones. And while working toward that goal, I found myself at MAC-UK, where I became a Youth Consultant.

When I started working at MAC-UK, my role was to consult on an external service through co-production. In simple terms, co-production means making something together.

The idea was to shape  mental health services by working alongside professionals from an external organisation— using my lived experience to make sure those services actually meet the needs of the people who use them.

I learned so much in that role. So, here’s what I discovered about what co-production really is, what makes it work, and what can make it go very wrong.

Why Co-Production Matters

“Mental health services are supposed to help you improve your life when things feel too heavy to manage.”

They’re meant to be supportive, caring, and responsive — a safe space where you’re listened to and treated with respect.

Inpatient services should keep you safe and make you feel like the staff are on your side. But too often, that’s not the reality.

When services don’t communicate clearly, fail to respond to calls or emails, schedule appointments too far away, brush off your concerns, don’t provide the necessary information for you to give informed consent, or fail to provide appropriate therapy and real choices when needed, it can leave you feeling lost, frustrated, out of control, and even worthless. The sad truth is that most people have to reach a crisis point before they get any real help.

I’m one of many people who have been let down by the system, and not received the help I deserved. But that experience gave me something valuable: a deep understanding of how mental health services actually work, what’s missing, and what needs to change.

That’s why co-production is so important. It’s based on real experiences, not assumptions. It brings together professionals and people with lived experience, patients, carers, families, to make services more human and effective.

As a young person, being part of a process like this in empowering. You’re not just a “service user” who has been let down anymore — you’re part of creating something better. When co-production is done well, it’s honestly brilliant.

What Good Co-Production Looks Like

Good co-production means involving Youth Consultants right from the start — not halfway through or at the end just to tick a box.

It’s about working together as equals. People with lived experience should feel heard, respected, valued, and involved in every stage of the process. Their ideas should be taken seriously, even when they challenge professional opinions.

Many people take on these roles because they’ve been let down before. They come with passion, insight, and a real drive to make things better for others. When that passion is truly valued, it’s powerful. It gives meaning to difficult experiences and turns pain into purpose. That’s an amazing feeling.

When Co-Production Goes Wrong

Unfortunately, not all co-production is done well. Sometimes it’s just for show — a way for an organisation to say they’ve “involved service users” to look progressive and avoid criticism, without offering any real involvement or power-sharing.

This kind of ‘fake co-production’ wastes people’s time and breaks trust.

It often goes wrong when professionals still make all the decisions, change plans without warning, or fail to communicate clearly about expectations. When that happens, it defeats the whole purpose of co-production. It leaves lived experience consultants feeling ignored and used — like their time and input didn’t matter.

And that’s not just disappointing — it’s damaging. It breaks trust and discourages people from getting involved again.

Final Thoughts

Co-production has the power to change services for the better — but only if it’s done genuinely. When professionals and people with lived experience work together as equals, real change happens.

I’ve learned about both sides — the good and the bad — and I know one thing for sure: When co-production is done well, it doesn’t just improve services; it heals people too — including the lived experience consultants.