title: "Walking alongside:" collaborative practices in mental health and substance use care.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Although the importance of collaboration is well established as a principle in research and in theory, what it actually means for practitioners to collaborate in practice, to be partners in a collaborative relationship, has thus far been given less attention. The aim of this study was to identify key characteristics of the ways in which mental health practitioners collaborate with service users and their families in practice.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a qualitative action research study, with a cooperative inquiry approach that used multi-staged focus group discussions with ten mental health care and social work practitioners in community mental health and substance use care. Thematic analysis was applied to identify common characteristics.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We identified three major themes related to practitioners' experiences of collaborative practices: (1) walking alongside through negotiated dialogues, (2) maintaining human relationships, and (3) maneuvering relationships and services.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  It appears that even with the rich knowledgebase that has developed on the merits of collaborative relationships, it continues to be challenging for practitioners to reorient their practice accordingly. The findings of this study indicate that the practitioners focus on two types of processes as characterizing collaborative practice: one focusing on conversations among practitioners and service users and their families and the other focusing on management and control among health care providers, service sectors, and service users (i.e., inter/intra-system collaboration).
authors.affiliation: Centre for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Faculty of Health Sciences, Buskerud and Vestfold University College, P.O. Box 7053, 3007 Drammen, Norway.
authors.forename: Ottar
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Ness
authors.affiliation: Centre for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Faculty of Health Sciences, Buskerud and Vestfold University College, P.O. Box 7053, 3007 Drammen, Norway.
authors.forename: Marit
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Borg
authors.affiliation: Centre for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Faculty of Health Sciences, Buskerud and Vestfold University College, P.O. Box 7053, 3007 Drammen, Norway.
authors.forename: Randi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Semb
authors.affiliation: Centre for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Faculty of Health Sciences, Buskerud and Vestfold University College, P.O. Box 7053, 3007 Drammen, Norway.
authors.forename: Bengt
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Karlsson
keywords: Action Research; Co-occurring mental health and substance use problems; Collaborative practices; Community mental health care; Cooperative Inquiry; Recovery; Shared decision-making