‘It ain’t what you do it’s the way that you do it!’: Facilitation techniques for patient and public involvement

2014 Conference

Abstract:  Not everyone will feel comfortable in formal research environments, such as committee meetings. Some members of the public may feel less able to contribute when research processes are new to them but familiar to the professionals involved. This power imbalance can be a barrier to meaningful collaboration.

One potential solution to this is to provide training / development opportunities, so that people become more confident and familiar with traditional research activities. Another solution is to run things in a more inclusive and engaging way. This second approach is often adopted within participatory research, but is less frequently used elsewhere.

When carrying out public involvement activities, it can be helpful to have a variety of facilitation techniques to draw on. This can help to engage with a range of diverse stakeholders and create dialogue between different perspectives. Creative techniques can also be applied when evaluating events.

This will be a highly practical and interactive session. We will start by asking participants to consider what good facilitation means to them. We will then take people through some specific exercises which could be used as part of public involvement. Participants will have a chance to experience different activities, consider how they might work with different groups (eg children and young people / adults) and at which stages of the research cycle they might work best.

We will draw on techniques from the arts, education, community development and participatory research. Activities will take a variety of formats including physical, visual, discussion based, written and individual reflection.