Assisted democracy: On dilemmas in practicing democracy and participation within psychosocial rehabilitation

The presentation explores local democratic processes among service users, who live in a Danish residential housing facility for young adults with severe mental problems. In Denmark, psycho-social rehabilitation involve ideals of inclusion, autonomy, democracy and participation. These ideals are underlined both by the UN-Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and by the turn towards ‘recovery’ in mental health care – both of which point to the importance of including the service users’ own perspectives and voices. The question, however, is how these ideals work (or don’t work) in practice? How do service users participate in local democratic processes? And how are different forms of participation recognized as legitimate?