This blog is closed to new posts due to inactivity. The post remains here as part of the network’s archive of useful research information. We hope you'll join the conversation by posting to an open topic or starting a new one.
 
You are invited to participate in Global Health Trials’ inaugural collaborative project: Community Engagement – your experiences.
This exciting project will collect examples of community-engagement difficulties encountered during research projects, by clinical research staff from all job roles across the globe, so as to assess geographical differences in experiences countered and to facilitate future research. Additionally, experiences surrounding community engagement activities will be recorded and shared for future use by other groups.
Initially this project will take place online, but if sufficient data is captured there will be the chance for all the contributors to collaborate on a paper detailing experiences, lessons learnt, and community engagement solutions in collaboration with Global Health Trials’ expert groups, making it a really exciting opportunity for those who choose to participate.
To collaborate in this project, simply share your experiences online at the link: https://globalhealthtrials.tghn.org/community/groups/group/informed-consent/topics/421/ .You will need to write where you are (city and country), and write as much as you like about community engagement in your area. For example, perhaps research is little understood in your area, or perhaps people equate researchers with devil worshippers and don’t understand why blood is being taken, or why research is being done on children. Perhaps people misunderstand research and find it difficult to understand that they aren’t being given a ‘cure’? Or are there rumours surrounding the community field workers and their roles? Tell us your experiences.
Secondly, have you done some community engagement activities in your area? If so, what, and how well did it work? We’ve heard of some groups doing open-days at their centres, for example, or having open meetings in the community, where people can ask questions. What did or didn’t work for you?
To get you thinking, we’ve got some examples online of ‘community engagement gone wrong’, where trials or standard care have been stopped due to misunderstandings in the community. These are fantastic example of why it’s so important that communities are sufficiently prepared for research studies, and how this project could therefore facilitate research by sharing the lessons learnt from our global network of researchers.If sufficient responses are received, Global Health Trials’ experts will work with everyone who has provided sufficient information on this discussion, to create a journal article – so this is your chance to collaborate and share authorship. Please share at the link provided.