Authentic PPIE – the (re)search for authentic engagement

Hi!

I am a qualified teacher and youth worker with over thirty years experience of working with children and young people. I worked for ten years as a Creative Engagement freelance Practitioner, developing and managing community engagement programmes including projects funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Armed Forces Community Covenant.

Prior to joining the NHS at Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust, I worked with a number of local organisations including the University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth City Council, the Deanery and Diocese of Portsmouth and Portsmouth Cathedral where I devised and led the community engagement programme as their Annual Theme Curator. This four year partnership included work funded by the Awards for All and Arts Council England.

I brought all that community experience and networks to my role as the Patient and Public Involvement Facilitator at Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust, where I worked for nearly seven years – leading and supporting a successful Patient and Public Involvement group, a Young People’s PPI group and creating new opportunities to engage the public with healthcare research. I worked with researchers and clinicians from the Trust, as well as partners from Portsmouth City Council and the University of Portsmouth to support and deliver public involvement activities.

I have recently moved to a new role as Research Facilitation Lead with HDRC Portsmouth (Health Determinants Research Collaboration). This role will involve me working collaboratively with local residents, voluntary organisations and council staff to work out what they want to know or understand better (a research question) and then how we’re going to go about finding the information to answer that question (a research or discovery project).

My research interests are around authentic PPIE (patient and public involvement and engagement) and community-led research; recognising the power, knowledge and skills in communities and finding ways to work in a more equitable, power-balanced way, for mutual benefit. I am currently exploring whether social pedagogy might be an appropriate way of working in PPIE, and this may develop into a future, larger study. You can watch a presentation of the findings of my initial research here.