Engaging with patients

A commitment to service-user involvement is at the heart of our research activity. This is critical to ensure views of the people who use the services can be heard to inform appropriate changes and improve their experience. 

For the past ten years we have enabled and facilitated patient and public involvement informed by a user and carer forum.  Our expertise covers the whole continuum of participation through authentic engagement of individuals and user groups in a range of activities. This includes:

• Interviewing and recruitment of students
• Curriculum development and enhancement
• Methods and approaches to facilitate patient and public involvement in health needs assessment, service review and co-design
• Undertaking and facilitating participatory, collaborative and user led research with user and carer groups
• Practice development towards person centred care
• Consultancy and workforce development to enable service user/patient involvement

A recent project undertaken in partnership with the Elders Council, Newcastle explored the views of people aged 50 and above, together with their families and carers, to understand their needs to age in place. Discussions with these people occurred around some key research questions:

• What do people need to ‘age in place’?
• What is their potential for ageing in place?
• How can older people be involved in the design, commissioning and delivery of support services that enable them to age in place? 

This research with end users can then be used directly with commissioners and service providers to inform their respective policies, strategy, and service provision, including citizen-led solutions. This type of approach ensures their collective views and perspectives can be captured and inform developments in a meaningful way.