Community participation for rural healthcare design: description and critique of a method
Amy Nimegeer BA MLitt MBA PhD
MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Jane Farmer MA PhD
Faculty of Health Sciences, La Trobe University, Bendigo, Victoria, Australia
Correspondence
Jane Farmer
Professor of Health Services Research and Policy
Faculty of Health Sciences
La Trobe University
PO Box 199, Bendigo
Victoria 3552, Australia
E-mail: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorSarah Anne Munoz BA PhD
Centre for Rural Health, University of the Highlands and Islands, Inverness, UK
Search for more papers by this authorMags Currie BSc MSc PhD
Social, Economic & Geographical Sciences Department, The James Hutton Institute, Aberdeen, UK
Search for more papers by this authorAmy Nimegeer BA MLitt MBA PhD
MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Jane Farmer MA PhD
Faculty of Health Sciences, La Trobe University, Bendigo, Victoria, Australia
Correspondence
Jane Farmer
Professor of Health Services Research and Policy
Faculty of Health Sciences
La Trobe University
PO Box 199, Bendigo
Victoria 3552, Australia
E-mail: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorSarah Anne Munoz BA PhD
Centre for Rural Health, University of the Highlands and Islands, Inverness, UK
Search for more papers by this authorMags Currie BSc MSc PhD
Social, Economic & Geographical Sciences Department, The James Hutton Institute, Aberdeen, UK
Search for more papers by this authorAbstract
This paper outlines a community participation process that was developed to engage rural community stakeholders in designing new health services. The paper explains what led up to the process and provides critique around applying the process for other health services and in other communities. Internationally, community participation is widely invoked, but it is only broadly explained in the literature, other than reviews of outcomes or descriptions of problems. This paper provides an actual process, derived from iterative research, that others could use, but explains caveats in the method and its application. From developing this method of community participation for service design, we conclude that rather than being a benign and inherently ‘good thing’, community participation is a process into which health services managers and communities should enter cautiously. Stronger parameters around desirable outcomes and awareness of potential pitfalls in the process are important to address.
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