COUV ACTES - Psychologie communautaire

Community Psychology: Common Values, Diverse Practicestowards very different agenda’s. The participants grew in stature, acknowledging themselves as experts of theirown experiences, and that their knowledge has equal validity with the knowledge that professionals have. Allparticipants felt that the research and advisor training had given them greater confidence to work alongsideprofessionals on an equal footing. In order to feel they had a valued role in the research process participants felt itwas important they identify a term by which they would be known. After much discussion they determined theywould like to be known as community researchers and advisors.Objectives of second training sessionResearch has suggested that there exists within health and social care services a closed culture and that, incombination with inadequate resources serves to restrict service user’s involvement. The intention of the 2 ndresearch training schedule therefore was to bring together community researchers/advisors and health and socialcare professionals in a mutually supportive learning environment. The research training sought to challenge thebarriers which marginalise community researchers/advisors by bringing the two groups to work together andacknowledge that all knowledge is co-constructed. It was also our intention that in time the association ofcommunity researchers/advisors and health and social care professionals would be supported to develop a crossdiscipline,multi-faceted network. This would seek to develop a network which provides support, advice andinformation concerning research, be instrumental in disseminating research findings and become an integratedand established element of the wider research community.The training agenda also sought to challenge the barriers which marginalise service user knowledge andencourage the development of a multi-agency network to generate new ways of sharing and disseminating bothlay and professional knowledge and understanding.The 2 nd training event sought to build upon the achievements of the first session by providing participants with thepractical skills necessary to work alongside professionals within research settings. The 2nd research trainingschedule therefore introduced those community researchers and advisors who had already undertaken trainingand a number of health and social care professionals and assigned them into 3 mixed groups. After each sessionthe groups spent 10 minutes feeding back on what they had learnt from the session. The 3 groups all felt thatthey had learnt a lot about participating either as researchers or advisors but perhaps most importantly felt thatthe day had presented them with an opportunity to meet and discuss mutually shared concerns in an environmentwhere there was no inherent power imbalance.Outcomes from the second training eventThe overwhelming consensus was that the day afforded people the opportunity to talk openly about perceivedbarriers to collaborative working between paid health and social care professionals and unpaid communityresearchers and advisors. Some of these barriers were discussed over lunch and during the final session andwere hotly debated. All the participants wrote a short reflective piece and all professed a greater understanding ofresearch methods and of the role of research in facilitating community empowerment and engagement andservice planning and redesign.65