Beyond tokenistic participation: Using representational artefacts to enable meaningful public participation in health service design

MORRISON, Cecily and DEARDEN, Andy (2013). Beyond tokenistic participation: Using representational artefacts to enable meaningful public participation in health service design. Health Policy, 112 (3), 179-186.

Preview

PDF Dearden_beyond_tokenistic_participation.pdf - Published Version Creative Commons Attribution. Download (1MB) | Preview

Abstract

A number of recent policies promote public participation in health service design. Yet, a growing literature has articulated a gap between policy aims and actual practice resulting in public participation becoming tokenistic. Drawing on theory from participatory design, we argue that choosing appropriate artefacts to act as representations can structure discussions between public participants and health professionals in ways that both groups find meaningful and valid. Through a case study of a service improvement project in outpatient services for older people, we describe three representational artefacts: emotion maps, stories, and tracing paper, and explain how they helped to mediate interactions between public participants and health professionals. We suggest that using such representational artefacts can provide an alternative approach to participation that stands in contrast to the current focus on the professionalisation of public participants. We conclude that including participatory designers in projects, to chose or design appropriate representational artefacts, can help to address the policy–practice gap of including public participants in health service design

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This article is available from the publisher on an 'Open Access' basis.
Research Institute, Centre or Group - Does NOT include content added after October 2018:	Cultural Communication and Computing Research Institute > Communication and Computing Research Centre
Departments - Does NOT include content added after October 2018:	Faculty of Science, Technology and Arts > Department of Computing
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthpol.2013.05.008
Page Range:	179-186
Depositing User:	Andrew Dearden
Date Deposited:	17 Jul 2013 09:06
Last Modified:	18 Mar 2021 04:35
URI:	https://shura.shu.ac.uk/id/eprint/7151

Actions (login required)

View Item

Downloads

Publication Metrics