Cultural animation in health research: An innovative methodology for patient and public involvement and engagement

Kelemen, Mihaela; Surman, E; Dikomittis, L

Abstract

BACKGROUND:
A significant challenge in Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) in health research is to include a wide range of opinions and experiences, including from those who repeatedly find themselves at the margins of society.

OBJECTIVE:
To contribute to the debate around PPIE by introducing a bottom-up methodology: cultural animation (CA). Cultural Animation is an arts-based methodology of knowledge co-production and community engagement which employs a variety of creative and participatory exercises to help build trusting relationships between diverse participants (expert and non-experts) and democratize the process of research.

DESIGN:
Three CA full-day workshops for the research project "A Picture of Health."

PARTICIPANTS:
Each workshop was attended by 20-25 participants including 4 academics, 5 retired health professionals who volunteered in the local community and 15 community members. Participants ranged in age from 25 to 75 years, and 80% of the participants were women over the age of 60.

RESULTS:
The CA workshops unearthed a diversity of hidden assets, increased human connectivity, led to rethinking of and co-creating new health indicators and enabled participants to think of community health in a positive way and to consider what can be developed.

DISCUSSION:
Cultural animation encourages participants to imagine and create ideal pictures of health by experimenting with new ways of working together.

CONCLUSION:
We conclude by highlighting the main advantages to PPIE as follows: CA provides a route to co-produce research agendas, empowers the public to engage actively with health professionals and make a positive contribution to their community.

Citation

Kelemen, M., Surman, E., & Dikomittis, L. (2018). Cultural animation in health research: An innovative methodology for patient and public involvement and engagement. Health Expectations, 21(4), 805-813. https://doi.org/10.1111/hex.12677

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 28, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Mar 12, 2019
• Publication Date: 2018-08
• Deposit Date: Sep 16, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 17, 2019
• Journal: Health Expectations
• Print ISSN: 1369-6513
• Electronic ISSN: 1369-7625
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 21
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 805-813
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/hex.12677
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2621319
• Publisher URL: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/hex.12677
• Contract Date: Sep 17, 2019