For ACHA to achieve its full potential, the views and needs of our diverse local communities must be at the heart of shaping what we do: our research, our education programmes, and, most importantly, how we will support health and care service transformation.
Why Community Engagement Matters
Community engagement means involving people from the community in our research. It helps us make sure that what we do is meaningful to the people it affects. When you get involved, you help us choose the right topics to research and monitor the progress which will effectively improve healthy ageing for everyone.
We are committed to building sustainable public engagement approaches by using all available channels and methods to build strong foundations in the community.
We will do this through:
- Developing of a comprehensive Public and Patient Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) strategy which will outline our values and principles when working with partners
- Creating a Community Advisory Group (CAG) who will support the development of our PPIE strategy and ensure that it is effective, offer feedback and insight to support all activities undertaken by ACHA and, in the future, provide training for public advisers and researchers
- Using an outreach approach to reach diverse audiences and engage in meaningful discussions about health and wellbeing
Our PPIE Principles:
We understand the importance of listening to the voices of our diverse communities, to give lived experience a platform to improve care and to support people to age well.
We will prioritise connecting to communities where they are and where they feel safe and engage in meaningful discussions with clear aims, actions and next steps.
We will ensure we are as inclusive as possible in our practice, respecting the diverse abilities, values and cultures of our local population.
We will avoid duplication, combine local resources and respect the time and effort of our local partners.
We intend to focus our research on the priorities of the local community via true and meaningful co-production, influencing decision-making directly with the voices of local communities.
We will offer training and resource, make contributions and convey recognition for the time and input our participants offer ACHA.
Our activities will be approached with honesty and transparency, ensuring there is feedback and consistent communication.
Our principles have been developed with input from community representatives and our partner organisations. Please let us know if you have any feedback, we’d love to hear from you.
For further information, or to get in touch, kindly email Sam Ogunkoya.
