Engaging Patients and Carers

In the stakeholder analysis, which you completed as part of the Coordination and Leadership phase, you will have identified Public and Patient groups as key stakeholders who you will need to engage and involve in your local implementation plans. Patient and Public Engagement within the NHS can be described as:

  • The involvement of individual patients in their own care
  • The involvement of users and carers in service design and evaluation
  • Engaging communities and public in prioritisation and planning

Your local Shared Decision Making programme provides the opportunity to involve and engage with local patient and carer groups in each of the areas identified above. We have documented some of the areas we have identified during the course of our work with local health economies and these are shown in the document below.

You may not need to set up new groups specifically for implementing shared decision making. You will find a wide range of patient engagement groups already in existence and our experience has shown that existing patient groups are keen to be involved. The degree of involvement and commitment will vary. In work with one of our local health economies, patient representatives have undertaken the train the trainer programme so that they can act as a leader for change and share their knowledge and enthusiasm with clinical staff.

There are some useful resources which you can use with both clinicians and patient groups when looking at how Shared Decision Making can benefit your local population. As part of the Shared Decision Making Programme, AQuA have produced some films providing patient views of good and bad consultations. The link to these films is below:

If you would like to access the AQuA website for more information about their work around SDM see the link below:

The documents below provide some general information on Public and Patient Engagement and a template letter to patient and public groups. These are to support you to identify and engage with stakeholders in order to garner support for SDM across the health system.