Perspectives of Patients With Mental Illness on How to Better Teach and Evaluate Diversity Education in the National Health Service.

INTRODUCTION: Diversity education is a mandatory requirement for all mental-health practitioners and health care professionals in the UK National Health Service. Wide variability exists in the development, delivery, and evaluation of diversity education across health care settings, with limited evidence to suggest the optimal approach for teaching this subject. This study aimed to explore the perspectives of patients with mental illness on how to better teach and evaluate diversity education in the National Health Service. METHODS: A participatory research approach was used with five mental-health patient organizations. Forty-two patients with mental illness took part in three participatory workshops. Data were analyzed through template analysis. RESULTS: The findings indicated that a focus on the nuances and dynamics of clinical relationships would be beneficial. Specifically, the relationship considered most important to examine with respect to diversity education was the "practitioner-self" relationship. DISCUSSION: Reconstructing the relationship-centered care model with the addition of the practitioner-self relationship may be better suited to theoretically informing future developments in diversity education. Further research is needed to understand what educational approaches contribute toward a relationship-centered care outlook and how relationship building behaviors, particularly those relevant to the practitioner-self relationship are best developed in diverse settings.