Current Topic:
Agenda of involvement and engagement
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Abstract
Across Europe, members of the public, whether as current, previous or future patients or as carers, have been encouraged to participate in healthcare research, policy and planning, and practice. The agenda of involvement and engagement is expected to make services more responsive to patients’ needs, more acceptable, accountable, equitable and improve quality and outcomes of care.
In this module we will map out and describe current policy, and in particular UK policy directives that promote the agenda of patient and public involvement and engagement. We will also examine different types of involvement and engagement. There are four different types of involvement, which is defined by who is involved, what they are involved in doing and their underlying ideology. The first is the involvement of consumers in purchasing or choosing services. The second is the involvement of citizens in developing public policy and service planning, the third is the involvement of patients, service users and their carers as partners in care, and the fourth is the involvement of patients, service users and their carers as co-researchers in health and social care research. The third component of this module is where we examine the process of involvement and engagement. There is a growing body of research that has drawn our attention to some of the structural and cultural barriers to involvement and engagement work which we shall examine. The final component of the course will focus on outcomes. There is a small but growing body of evidence demonstrating the impact that involvement and engagement activity which we shall discuss.
