Showcase puts spotlight on public involvement
The extensive Patient & Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) undertaken by the Institute of Population Health was put on full display in a showcase event on the 1st February.
Held at the Central Teaching Hub on campus, a live PPIE panel Q&A session, stalls and presentations all featured for the packed three-hour session open to all, highlighting the benefits of public involvement for academia - from concept creation to implementation.
Examples of the success of public involvement featured in sessions on animation to engage with the public, the public involvement work of the Applied Research Collaboration North West Coast (ARC NWC), the Liverpool Dementia and Ageing Research Forum and the link between penguins, playing cards and statistics all kept a busy and inquisitive audience entertained.
A debate on public involvement rounded off the event, which had also featured discussions on tackling health inequalities, recruitment of public advisers to studies and their value in the role of disseminating findings.
ARC NWC Public Adviser Hillary Tetlow highlighted the importance of public advisers in research. She said: "Public advisers are like balloon holders - keeping the researcher in the real world."
Senior Research Fellow Dr Clarissa Giebel, of the Department of Primary Care and Mental Health, said: "We are a very proactive Institute on public and patient involvement and engagement. The showcase was a great opportunity to feature some of the institute's innovative work in this area. The audience heard from Dr Laura Bonnett, Dr Nicola Harman and others about their involvement of the public in their research and outreach work (Wombats included). We also hosted a live panel discussion on public involvement with two lived experts (Hilary Tetlow and Naheed Tahir) and Faculty Public Engagement Officer Dr Becky Glennon-Alty."
Social media was an integral part of the day with regular tweets about the event and interaction with external contributors who have worked on public involvement with the University.
Clarissa added:"“The event also introduced the Institute’s PPIE Working Group, with representatives from each School / Department and other PPIE staff composing its membership. As a group, we update each other on PPIE activities across the institute, but we are also the access point for talking through PPIE queries from across the Institute. For those of you who were unable to attend, we have allocated representatives. We welcome any queries and suggestions regarding PPIE from across the Institute."
Representatives
Psychology – Dr Warren Donnellan
Public Health, Policy and Systems – Dr Beth Deja
Health Data Sciences – Dr Laura Bonnett, Dr Nicola Harman
Health Sciences - Dr Nicola Baker, Julie Crane, Helen Marshall
PCMH – Dr Clarissa Giebel
Faculty Public Engagement support – Dr Becky Glennon-Alty.