A conversation
between Leanne Winfield, Patient Champion and Pamela Fisher, Principal
Lecturer, Health Promotion & Public Health, Leeds Beckett University.
Pamela: Tell me about
being a Patient Champion.
Leanne: I am a ‘Patient
Champion’ with my local NHS Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) in Leeds West. A
Patient Champion is a member of the public who works with the NHS to ensure
that the needs of patients, and the wider public, are considered by staff
throughout the commissioning cycle. My particular roles are as a member the
Patient Participation Group at my GP surgery, and as a member of the Equality
and Inclusion Group at Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. In
these roles I aim to promote the needs of all patients, not just my personal
viewpoint.
Pamela: Pamela: We
are holding seven one-day seminars are being held over two years in
collaboration with the Universities of Huddersfield, Oxford (St. Catherine's
College) and York. The seminars are helping to develop new ways of working and
researching within mental health. The starting point is that co-production
should involve authentic power-sharing, and that this requires a fundamental
re-imagining of the relationships between service users, carers and
professionals. They are run with the Economic and Social Research Council. Is
your work in a Leeds also a good example of co-production?
Leanne: The purpose
of a Patient Champion is to bring another perspective to discussions, and ensure
that relevant engagement work has taken place. With the CCG I have also been
involved in producing and delivering some training for other Patient Champions
and staff members on the topic of co-production. This was developed with the
ethos of co-production, working with staff members on an equal basis, and the
process demonstrated a really good example of co-production. People were valued
regardless of whether they were experts-by-learning or experts-by-experience.
The training was well received, and we will be running it again later in the
year.
Pamela: Our seminars
have seen a group of diverse stakeholders, who have contributed different forms
of expertise, taking part. The starting point for the seminar series has been
that all forms of expertise – service user/survivor, professional and academic -
should be viewed as equally valuable. I’d imagine it’s unlikely that you would
be able to be so effective as a Patient Champion if you were unable to draw on
her own experiences as a ‘user’ of mental health services.
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