We know that the gold standard in improving health outcomes is thought to come through a range of community engagement methods. This ensures that local communities are involved in the decision making processes about their healthcare - be it in the research, design or delivery.
At Neighbourly Lab, we believe we should go beyond the gold standard and keep trying to find new ways to take participation and co-production even further to achieve better, long term outcomes for communities.
There is an array of evidence that cites the benefits of real power-sharing to tackle health inequalities at the community level. It highlights that engaging communities works best at finding more effective and relevant solutions to health inequalities. By listening and seeing people in their context with the wider social determinants at play, we can better understand their barriers, so that policy makers and service delivery can change, to be more tailored to meet the assets and needs of local people. We strongly support this approach and think that by including Peer Researchers in this engagement from the start and throughout, even more can be achieved.
A Peer Researcher is someone recruited from within the community to be part of the research team.
They are ‘Experts with Experience’, living in the communities among the people we are trying to reach.
They are known by many and trusted to give voice to different people’s experiences.
They are trained in the research objectives and methodologies and work with other researchers across the life cycle of the project.
They are essential to making co-production even more effective and enhance what is seen currently as the gold standard in community engagement.
By bringing Peer Researchers into projects tackling the social determinants of health, it helps to reduce any stigma and stressors people may feel around their health inequalities, as they are more likely to open up to people ‘like them’. In their role, they can consistently increase opportunities for social connection, usually amongst those people who are experiencing a deficit of it, who would benefit from shaping and influencing services targeted at them. These are often people that policy makers refer to as ‘hard to reach’. However, they are not. It is in fact the systems themselves which are hard to connect with.
Through our experience, Peer Researchers play an essential dual role; they encourage people with lived experience to participate and inform delivery and outcomes of projects. As a result of this they are able to help the same people to be better networked and supported, feel more connected and informed about their health or other relevant issues. They ask the right questions, get to the heart of the challenges, help decision makers understand different perspectives and help the community to connect on issues that matter to them. Plus - they don’t leave at the end of the co-production phase, they continue to be embedded in the community, so can play a role in evaluation and project sustainability too.
We have recently worked with Peer Researchers in participatory co-production projects in communities. In one example, we sought to understand deeply about health inequalities experienced by the community and co-produce interventions that could help improve their outcomes. Working with Peer Researchers invited us to embrace the nuances of participation.
It allowed us to work in a conscious, honest way, with trust and understanding. It gave communities space to think about their experiences in different ways; so that they could participate fully and more equally. This method highlighted that we can positively affect so much more than influencing health service delivery and project design. We have the potential to impact how communities experience their inequalities and health conditions, their sense of place and vision for better outcomes. Indeed, the experience of taking part and being asked what changes they would like to see can also have wellbeing benefits.
“As a 50+ resident this was a valid and relevant research project to be involved in. The best part for me was the intercept interviews-quick fire questions to residents in a variety of locations around our neighbourhood. Bus stops are definitely a great place for community conversations. Everyone I spoke to wanted to know more, explore the ideas in more depth and were keen to be kept updated about the outcomes of the research, especially when the ideas are going to be implemented. The interviews led to such a variety of wider conversations and one even led to an impromptu line dance lesson! Being local, the target age and, so I'm told, easily recognisable definitely helped when I approached people.” Community Researcher in Bristol
Having a diverse team of Peer Researchers, involved in all stages of participatory research and co-production projects means you:
Ask better questions and get more genuine answers
Have contextual knowledge-around assets in the community, barriers being faced, and what’s gone before
Find more creative solutions addressing wider health inequalities- making them more person centred and prioritising what matters to people
Develop more inclusive health care/ housing / community services
Build social connection among those taking part - including peer support among the Peer Researchers themselves.
Have options to co-create evaluation measures and evaluate whether co-produced initiatives have had any impact.
We think It is always worthwhile to see if you can include Peer Researchers in co-production projects; the outcomes will be much more relevant and the benefits much more widespread.
If you would like to know more about our work with Peer Researchers, our Peer Researcher Training offer, or how to do Participatory Research please contact: marnie@neighbourlylab.com
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