Facilitating Collaboration by Opening the Common Information Space in Mental Health Care

In this paper, we explore the role of common information space (CIS) in mental health care. CIS and collaboration have been prominent themes within the field of computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW). The study investigates two research questions: (i) How is CIS constructed and shared in mental health care? and (ii) How can CIS facilitate collaboration between health care workers and patients? We draw from a rich set of data from two separate research projects in the domain of mental health. The first project is on mental health home treatment, while the second project studies patientaccessible electronic health records. Based on our analysis, we structure our findings into three themes. First, we describe the construction of CIS. Next, we outline how opening CIS unfolds in mental health care. Finally, we provide insights into how collaboration is facilitated by sharing CIS. We conclude with a discussion of our findings.