Centre for Reviews and Dissemination, University of York, York, UK.
Cochrane Common Mental Disorders Group, Centre for Reviews and Dissemination, University of York, York, UK.
Health Expect. 2023 Dec;26(6):2428-2440. doi: 10.1111/hex.13835. Epub 2023 Aug 15.
Involving consumers in systematic reviews can make them more valuable and help achieve goals around transparency. Systematic reviews are technically complex and training can be needed to enable consumers to engage with them fully. The Cochrane Common Mental Disorders group sought to engage people with lived experience of mental health problems in the Voice of Experience College, three workshops introducing them to systematic review methods and to opportunities to contribute as Cochrane consumers. We aimed to collectively evaluate the College from the perspective of both facilitators and consumers, to critically reflect on the experience, and to identify how the College could be sustained and spread to other review groups.
This study was a longitudinal qualitative and collaborative evaluation, structured around normalisation process theory. Both facilitators and consumers were involved in not only providing their perspectives but also reflecting on these together to identify key learning points.
The workshops were positively evaluated as being engaging and supportive, largely due to the relational skills of the facilitators, and their willingness to engage in joint or two-way learning. The College suffered from a lack of clarity over the role of consumers after the College itself, with a need for greater communication to check assumptions and clarify expectations. This was not achieved due to pandemic disruptions, which nevertheless demonstrated that resources for involvement were not prioritised as core business during this period.
Soft skills around communication and support are crucial to effective consumer engagement. Sustaining involvement requires sustained communication and opportunities to reflect together on opportunities and challenges. This requires committed resources to ensure involvement activity is prioritised. This is critical as negative experiences later in the involvement journey can undermine originally positive experiences if contributors are unclear as to what their involvement can lead to. Open discussions about this are necessary to avoid conflicting assumptions. The spread of the approach to other review groups could be achieved by flexibly adapting to group-specific resources and settings, but maintaining a core focus on collaborative relationships as the key mechanism of engagement.
Public contributors were collaborators throughout the evaluation process and have co-authored the paper.
让消费者参与系统评价可以使系统评价更有价值，并有助于实现透明度方面的目标。系统评价技术复杂，需要进行培训，以使消费者能够充分参与。 Cochrane 常见精神障碍组在体验学院（Voice of Experience College）中，让有心理健康问题经历的人参与进来，通过三个研讨会向他们介绍系统评价方法，并为他们提供作为 Cochrane 消费者做出贡献的机会。我们旨在从协调员和消费者两个角度，共同评估该学院，批判性地反思体验，并确定如何维持和推广该学院至其他审查小组。
本研究是一项纵向定性和协作评估，围绕常态过程理论展开。协调员和消费者不仅提供了自己的观点，还共同反思这些观点，以确定关键的学习要点。
这些研讨会受到了积极评价，认为它们引人入胜、支持性强，这主要归因于协调员的关系技巧，以及他们愿意进行联合或双向学习。在体验学院之后，消费者的角色缺乏明确性，沟通不畅，需要更多的沟通来检查假设并澄清期望。由于疫情的干扰，这一点未能实现，但也表明在这段时间内，参与资源没有被优先视为核心业务。
沟通和支持方面的软技能对于有效的消费者参与至关重要。维持参与需要持续的沟通，以及共同反思机会和挑战的机会。这需要承诺的资源来确保参与活动得到优先考虑。这一点至关重要，因为如果参与者不清楚他们的参与可以带来什么，参与过程中后续的负面体验可能会破坏最初的积极体验。因此，有必要进行公开讨论，以避免假设冲突。该方法可以通过灵活适应特定小组的资源和环境进行推广，但需要保持以合作关系为核心的参与机制。
公众参与者是整个评估过程中的合作者，并共同撰写了这篇论文。
