Engaging Communities as Partners in Research: Advancing Integrated Care Through Purposeful Partnerships

Abstract

Many researchers have recognized the value of integrating local communities’ customs and cultures into clinical interventions oriented to a variety of health-related foci, but few have done so effectively. Patients’ and families’ lived experience and wisdom continues to represent a largely untapped resource, and Western providers continue to design and test interventions through top-down, service-delivery approaches. As healthcare providers unilaterally impart care, patients and their families are rendered passive—and often powerless—in the healthcare system. In this chapter, the authors describe research approaches that emphasize and advance close collaboration between professional researchers and lay community members. These methods—including community-based participatory research, Citizen Health Care, and a variety of other collaborative learning and intervention methods—serve to flatten conventional hierarchies as all participants in the investigatory process work together to generate knowledge and solve local problems. We describe several examples of this type of innovative work and outline next steps and strategies for its continued expansion into mainstream health research.