Engaging Everyone: Co-building diverse and inclusive patient partnerships to promote health equity.
Authors: Sayani Ambreen , Maybee Alies , Cordeaux Emily , Kuluski Kerry , Marcinow Michelle , Smith Kelly 
Published: January 2024

Background: To address the challenge of engaging diverse people, discover a novel model of engagement where diverse members of community bring a health equity lens to healthcare projects, policies and research.

Workshop description: This workshop is designed to introduce participants to challenges and opportunities in diverse patient engagement. Participants will learn about the Equity-Mobilizing Partnerships in Community (EMPaCT) model. Through group discussions, participants will explore how they can adapt the EMPaCT approach to their own settings. Through tools and resources developed by EMPaCT, participants will learn how to co-design sustainable and scalable models of patient engagement to promote health equity. In particular, participants will learn about:

1.Conceptual frameworks that make explicit the relationships between social, political and economic inequities and health outcomes;

2.Strategies to involve communities experiencing the most inequities in policy and decision-making; and

3.Methods to design programs that are scalable.

Intended audience: Anyone who is:

1.interested in learning how to engage in patient partnerships that promote health equity;

2.interested in engaging with diverse and seldom-heard communities for practice, research or policy development;

3.involved in system-level healthcare redesign and resourcing.

 

 

Workshop overview & agenda (90 mins workshop)

1.Introductions (10 mins) – Alies, Ambreen, Emily

2.Section: Getting to know the audience (10 mins ) – Emily

Approach: Interactive polls. Responses reviewed in real-time.

Outcome: Understand which stakeholder category participants identify with and their experiences in patient engagement including engagement with diverse voices as well as level of decision-making authority.

3.Section: Introduction to the challenges and opportunities in diverse patient engagement and the need for scalable equity-oriented patient partnerships (10 mins) – Ambreen

Approach: Presentation by workshop facilitators.

Outcome: Participants will have foundational knowledge needed to engage in interactive workshop.

4.Section: Identifying and using conceptual frameworks that recognize how health inequities drive health outcomes (15 mins) – Emily

Approach: Overview of frameworks and interactive discussion using Padlet-based questions.

Outcome: Participants will engage in learning and discussion about health and social inequities.

5.Section: Involving communities experiencing the most inequities in policy and decision-making (15 mins) – Alies

Approach: Facilitators will share how EMPaCT was co-designed using an equity-oriented lens to patient engagement. Participants will learn how to apply the same lens to their setting using interactive group discussion through Padlet.

Outcome: Participants will learn about different ways to involve communities experiencing the most inequities in policy and decision-making.

6.Section: Designing programs that are scalable and sustainable (15 mins) – Ambreen

Approach: Facilitators will share how EMPaCT was co-developed as a scalable unit. Participants will engage in interactive discussions through Padlet to identify the resources available to them to co-create a scalable unit in their setting.

Outcome: Participants will learn about different ways to scale and sustain patient engagement activities that promote health equity.

7.Closing summary (15 mins) – Alies