What is patient and public engagement?

Patient and public engagement means involving patients, caregivers, and community members as “patient and public research partners” in all aspects of a research project. This helps to ensure that the research is relevant and meaningful to the population. 

What are patient and public research partners?

Patient and public research partners are people who advise researchers throughout a research project and can provide important feedback to researchers. At the Aging, Community and Health Research Unit (ACHRU), this helps researchers to conduct research that is relevant to the aging population.

Why do we need you?

We are interested in recruiting older adults to become members of a research program to gain insight into their experiences and perspectives. We want to engage and orient older adults as patient and public research partners in our research team. You do not need any previous experience in research in order to participate.

How have previous patient and public research partners helped us?

Previous patient and public research partners have helped researchers at ACHRU to identify gaps in patient and public engagement and supported various research studies. Some examples include:

• co-creating brochures to help orient future patient and public research partners to participate on research teams
• helping identify important questions for research
• sharing ideas on how to recruit research participants
• assisting in interpreting research results
• co-authoring papers and reports reporting on results

Videos

Insights from a Caregiver Research Partner

Gail juggles the demands of being a family caregiver and yet still makes time to be an Aging, Community and Health Research Unit caregiver research partner. In this short video she shares her experience and perspectives about caregiving and sheds light on what researchers really need to know when working with caregivers as research partners. 

 Click here to view this video

Patient, Caregiver and Public Engagement in Research 

Researchers explain how patients, caregivers and the public are making research more effective by engaging in research at the Aging, Community and Health Research Unit.

Click here to view this video

Learn more

If you are an older adult that is interested in becoming a patient and public research partner at ACHRU, go to “How Can I Get Involved?” for more information.

Additional resources are available on the left sidebar for your interest.

This work is generously supported by the Labarge Foundation, and part of a program of research at the Aging, Community and Health Research Unit.