Mental health policy and practice across Europe: an overview

The user and survivor movement 343
conjunction with these organizations. It is not a rich organization and relies on
the dedication of a few individuals.
Activities of user groups
Turning now to the different organizations affiliated to ENUSP, as has already
been mentioned, user involvement across Europe has developed very unevenly.
Table 14.1 provides information on the number of groups known to ENUSP.
Only seven countries in ENUSP have not reported any user groups, while much
activity can now be seen in many of the countries of central and eastern Europe.
France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Spain provide the most links
to groups.
Table 14.1 may, however, be biased because five of the countries with 11 or
more groups were part of a specific study conducted by Peter Lehmann (who
manages the website) and thus more information may have been collected from
these locations. Another limitation of this analysis is that it cannot take account
of the size of individual groups. Some countries, which have only a few groups
(notably Sweden and Denmark), in fact have very high membership levels with
thousands of members organized at national, regional and local level. Finally,
the list is clearly far from comprehensive at least as far as local groups go; in
England alone it has been reported that there are over 700 user-controlled
groups (Wallcraft et al. 2003). One study in London alone identified 74 user
groups in the city, with groups having between 5 and 200 members (Crawford
et al. 2003).
User involvement can take place in a number of ways. Key identified activities
of these groups include self-help, the provision of services outside the statutory
sector, advocacy, anti-stigma and public education initiatives, creative activities
Table 14.1 Number of user groups known to ENUSP
Number
Countries
No Groups Andorra, Croatia, Cyprus, Latvia
San Marino, Serbia & Montenegro, Turkey
1 Albania, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Faroe Islands, Iceland, Liechtenstein,
FYR Macedonia, Malta, Slovakia, Sweden
2–5 Armenia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland,
Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Moldova,
Portugal, Russian Federation, Ukraine
6–10 Bosnia and Herzegovina, Estonia, Ireland, Norway, Poland,
Romania, Slovenia
11–20 Austria, Germany, Italy, Switzerland
21–30 Netherlands, Spain
30+ France, United Kingdom
Source: ENUSP (2005)