The Public Health Agency in partnership with the Regional HSC PPI Forum has launched Engage – a central resource for Involvement in Health and Social Care.
The Engage website was developed in partnership with staff, service users and carers and is designed to provide a wide range of information, guides and links to support Personal and Public Involvement (PPI).
The website is focused on supporting HSC staff to build their knowledge and skills on Involvement.
It is a resource to provide the information and good practice tools for staff to effectively involve service users and carers.
Brian O’Hagan, a service user and carer representative who co-produced the resource, outlined that "the resource will stimulate people to get involved and provide them with the necessary information to start to understand Health and Social Care".
The resource is also public facing, providing information for service users and carers on involvement, consultation etc. An e-learning programme is available to help the public understand Health and Social Care and the importance of ensuring their voice is heard.
Officially launching Engage at an event on 13 November 2017, Dr Michael McBride outlined that: "Engage will develop into one of the most important resources that Health and Social Care uses. "Engage also provides a platform to showcase best practice by providing a range of case studies to demonstrate Involvement in practice in a range of areas. Links to tools are also available to support staff to identify tools to enable them to effectively involve service users, carers and the public.
Check out Engage at http://engage.hscni.net
For more information about PPI in Research click here.