A Critique of an Example of Community Engagement - Assignment Example

 “In an age where community involvement and partnerships with civil society are increasingly being recognized as indispensable, there is clearly a growing potential for cooperative development and renewal worldwide”. Kofi Annan Introduction: The role and involvement of consumers in community participation / engagement is one of the most crucial and significant aspects within the field of healthcare service delivery. The issue of consumer participation and involvement as a part of community engagement projects is gaining widespread recognition, due to its ability to contribute immensely for a larger social cause and enhance the living standards of the citizens involved. Consumers worldwide are known to be actively participating in community development projects, in the recent decades. According to studies, consumers in the U.S. as well as other western countries are increasingly seen using technological aids, such as mobile communication platforms, to expand their role in the development of civic lives in a bid to foster community engagement. According to the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism's survey conducted in the year 2011; it was observed that consumers today are increasingly using mobile phones and tablets to receive and access local information and news; and are seen to be highly motivated and willing to participate in projects aimed at the betterment of their communities (Waldman, 2011). The issue of consumer and community engagement in the field of healthcare service delivery is one of the most crucial as well as complex issues witnessed in recent times (Baggott and Forster, 2008, Contandriopoulos, 2004). However, there is widespread ambiguity with regard to the use of the terms ‘community’ and ‘engagement’ within the field of healthcare practice, since the terms are used widely and applied loosely, for a vast area of services and activities involving numerous groups such as patients; service users; carers as well as healthcare representatives (Billings, 2000; Viswanathan, 2004). The Arnstein’s citizen participation ladder is one of the best and widely popular models of consumer and community participation which refers to the contribution and co-operation extended by consumers; and describes the delegation of power and authority to them in order ensure higher participation and better outcomes (Attree et al., 2011). According to Brenner & Manice (2011) the continuum model for community engagement is one of the most significant models used for enhancing and encouraging community participation. It entails the use of strategies to ensure community consultations as well as participation and involves the achievement of community consent for accomplishing enhanced results. This paper on community engagement aims to critique a consumer community engagement project carried out by Fanon Resource Center at Lambeth, London (Fanon Resource Center, 2012) in association with The National Institute for Mental Health in England, Mental Health Program which was implemented to study the trends in recovery of a select group of minorities (the African and African Caribbean males). It also includes a brief overview of the project, the various strategies applied as a part of this project; to encourage community engagement; a comprehensive literature review highlighting the level of community engagement, and various other issues associated with the same; and lastly, the various strengths, weaknesses and limitations of the project in question, with regard to community engagement. Brief Overview: This research project was commenced in the year 2007 by the first Community Development Worker in association with a group of volunteers working in various capacities such as ‘community researchers’ and ‘community research co-coordinators’ to name a few. Titled, ‘The Recovery Project’ this project aimed at assessing, analyzing and developing effective solutions, through consumer participation and community engagement, for the ethnic minority population, comprising of African and Carribbean African males, suffering from mental health issues (Fanon Resource Center, 2012). The project was first initiated with a view to take into consideration the experiences and perspectives of African and African Caribbean male service users and their views on the services delivered. The findings were then planned to be used for improving the service delivery and ensuring better quality care to the users (Southside Partnership, 2008). For the purpose of this project, inspiration and useful guidance was drawn from the existing partnership programs such as the Devon NHS Recovery Program (Devon County Council, 2012) particularly with regard to the issues such as – the significance of community/ consumer involvement; the benefits accrued from the same; advantages of social inclusion; etc. Also, the SLaM (South London & Maudsley) Trust, which focuses on encouraging local community involvement in enhancing mental health service provision to the users, was used for reference (South London and Maudsley, 2012). The key highlights of using the above mentioned models and programs, was to derive deep insight into the various aspects of consumer participation and community engagement and its role in enhancing public well-being. Strategies used to encourage community participation: For the purpose of this project the model of community engagement developed by the Center for Ethnicity and Health (Patel, Buffin, 2007) was used. This model has been widely used for projects involving community participation with regard to enhancing service delivery within the field of public health. This model was particularly developed to ensure active participation and involvement of ethnic minorities and the local black population, across England, to ensure better service delivery, by enabling the consumers to execute and conduct their own needs assessment with regard to various illnesses particular to their communities, and develop prevention, education and treatment strategies for the same. With regard to this project, the Department of Health, commissioned a needs assessment with special emphasis on the types of drugs suitable for the communities in question. The program also sought the involvement of a wider community, apart from the key focus group i.e. the African and Caribbean African populace. This included youth; individuals with special disabilities; victims of domestic abuse; service user groups; as well as members of the LGBT (Lesbians, Gay, Bi-sexual, and Transgender) community. According to the Center for Ethnicity and Health model, the key highlight of such an endeavor is to ensure greater community participation, which can be done by ensuring optimum number of representatives from the targeted group. Thus, recruiting of people to execute the given task was of supreme significance. Furthermore, in order to ensure that the project is executed smoothly and effectively, proper infrastructure is a pre-requisite. Another significant aspect of community engagement projects is to ensure feedbacks and perspectives of the service users from the target population. For the purpose of this project a research team was organized and trained to conduct detailed interviews via questionnaires. The responses were then analyzed to draw meaningful conclusions and develop strategies for overcoming the shortcomings and suggest recommendations for change. Lastly, the community engagement projects must include a framework to offer effective support and guidance based on the study and observations made, as a part of the research. This entails, hiring trained staff / support workers, who are entrusted with the responsibility to communicate with the target population / communities, and guide and support them through education and training, as well as through financial aids. Figure 1: Community engagement Source: Bowen et al., (2010) Critique of Community engagement: Literature review The demand for a more active consumer participation in community development projects have been increasing over the past couple of decades, and there has been a significant interest in the role played by consumers and communities within the field of healthcare, in enhancing the service provision (Mold, 2010). Furthermore there has been a renewed interest in the significance of inclusion of patients’ perspectives, experiences, and needs in service provision within the field of healthcare (Crawford et al., 2002). This movement, towards greater public participation in improving service delivery has gained widespread support and recognition, over the decades. There is a strong evidence that suggest a positive relationship between consumer participation and improved healthcare delivery, and patient outcomes (Crawford et al., 2002; Nilsen et al., 2006). However there are reports stating the contrary, and negating the role of consumer participation in enhancing public health care service delivery (Wright, 2000). Regardless of the criticisms of the concept of community participation, the evidence supporting the same is overwhelming, thus indicating that the inclusion of consumer perspectives by healthcare providers is likely to improve service outcomes for the communities at large. There is evidence which suggests that particularly with regard to the vulnerable groups, community participation and use of support workers belonging to the target population, are known to contribute positively to seeking greater public involvement, thus in turn ensuring greater positive outcomes. Limitations: One of the key obstacles and / or limitations of this project was to ensure retention of community researchers. Since the project was based on voluntary participation, it lacked the dedicated approach that would otherwise have been achieved through providing monetary aids to the researchers / volunteers. The issues related to retention of the workers, further caused a serious lack of workers, needed for analyzing the huge amount of data collected and accumulated by the end of the project, hence delaying the results and widening the gap between commencement and completion of the project. This delay further affected the validity of the outcomes to a certain extent. References Attree, P., (2011). The experience of community engagement for individuals: A rapid review of evidence. Health and Social Care in the Community, 19(3): . 250-260 Baggott, R. and R. Forster, (2008). Health consumer and patients' organizations in Europe: Towards a comparative analysis. Health Expectations, 11(1): p. 85-94. Billings, J. R., (2000). Community development: A critical review of approaches to evaluation. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 31(2): p. 1247-1249 Bowen, F. A., Newenham-Kahindi, Herremans, I., (2010). When suits meet roots: The antecedants and consequences of community engagement strategy. Journal of Business Ethics 95(2): p. 297-318 Brenner, B. L., Manice, M. P., (2011). Community engagement in children's environmental health research. Mount Sinai Journal of Medicine, 78(1): p. 85-97 Contandriopoulos, D., (2004). A sociological perspective on public participation in health care. Social Science and Medicine, 58(2): p. 321-330. Crawford, M. J., (2002). Systematic review of involving patients in the planning and development of health care. BMJ, 325(7375): p. 1263 Mold, J. W., (2010). Facilitating shared decision making with patients. American Family Physician, 74(7): p. 1209-1210 Nilsen, E. S., (2006). Methods of consumer involvement in developing healthcare policy and research, clinical practice guidelines and patient information material. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reivews, 3: p. CD004563 Patel, F. J., Buffin, J., (2007). Community engagement: The Center for Ethnicity and Health Model, cited in Domineg, D., Fountain, J., Schatz, E., Bröring, G., Overcoming Barriers: Migration, marginalization and access to health services. Amsterdam. Viswanathan, M., (2004). Community-based participatory research: Assessing the evidence. Evidence Report: Technology Assessment, (99): p. 1-8 Waldman, S., (2011). Information needs for communities: The changing media landscape in a broadband age. DIANE Publishing, pp. 141-142 Wright, J. G., (2000). Evaluating the outcome of treatment. Shouldn't we be asking patients if they are better? Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 53(6): p. 549-553 Primary sources: Devon County Council (2012). [Online] Available at: http://www.devon.gov.uk/mental_health.htm [Accessed: May 30th, 2012] Fanon Resource Center (2012). Day centre for African Caribbean adults with mental health problems [Online] Available at: http://www.lambeth.gov.uk/Services/HousingPlanning/HomelessSupportAndAdvice/FanonResourceCentre.htm [Accessed: May 29th, 2012] Southside Partnership (2008). Community engagement project: The National Institute for Mental Health in England, Mental Health Program [Online] Available at: http://www.recoverydevon.co.uk/download/afrocaribean_perspectives.pdf] Accessed: [May 29th, 2012] South London and Maudsley, (2012). NHS Foundation [Online] Available at: http://www.maudsleycharity.org.uk/projects/learning-centre/vision-statements.aspx?selcat=0&selattr=&selattrs=&showcat=0&item=4572&page=1 [Accessed: May 29th, 2012] Read More