Hi I just posted this comment in the ask the expert area too. We want to engage with our community and don't know where or how to start. Please can others tell us how they do this and if possible share any materials they have? Thanks.

Reply

  • tlang Trudie Lang 21 May 2010

    Dorcas wrote this after the article

    Community engagement is promoted as one way to involve communities in health research. Some questions asked include what is community? what is engagement? who is engaged on behalf of whom? why is one engaging the other? whose authority/representation/voice do those engaged bring to the process? Are the ones engaging also being engaged? Engagement is said to be a continuum from simple information giving to deeper levels of partnership e.g. in participatory research, that community sensitization maybe one activity within broader community engagement program. Community members employed by research groups (often called fieldworkers) are said to play a key role in community engagement. But, how do they mediate between researchers (their employers), research participants (their community) and their one interests? What moral and ethical challenges do they face and how are these addressed?. Comments/views are very welcome

  • tchantler Tracey Chantler 20 May 2010

    Grand Challenges in Global Health: Community Engagement in Research in Developing Countries. PLoS Med, 2007. 4 (9) p. 1451-1455.

    Emanuel, E.J., et al., What makes clinical research in developing countries ethical? The benchmarks of ethical research. Journal of Infectious Disease, 2004. 189: (1 March) p. 930-937

    Beginning community engagement at a busy biomedical research programme: experiences from the KEMRI CGMRC-Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Kilifi, Kenya.

    Marsh V, Kamuya D, Rowa Y, Gikonyo C, Molyneux S.

    Soc Sci Med. 2008 Sep;67(5):721-33. Epub 2008 Apr 2.

    Good participatory practice guidelines

    http://data.unaids.org/pub/manual/2007/jc1364_good_participatory_guidelines_en.pdf

    It is very important to be clear about your aims in community engagement. What is focus, is it communication, is it involvement, creating community representation or a mixture of these?

    Happy to chat more if it would help.
    Bye for now,
    Tracey

  • tchantler Tracey Chantler 20 May 2010

    Hi Mamulla,

    Where are you based? The reason I ask is because it may be possible to link you up with others near you who might be able to share more contextual experiences.

    There is an increasing amount of literature about community engagement and I look forward to reading the article Raffaella has suggested. Interestingly this looks like a case study. Some of the other literature is more conceptual and there is a general acknowledement that a lot of conceptual progress has been made in this field but there has been less translation in practice. Particularly when it comes to some of the ideals of community engagement, as a means to improve ethical practice.

    Some other articles I would suggest are:
    Nyika, A., et al., Engaging diverse communities participating in clinical trials: case examples from across Africa. Malaria Journal, 2010. 9(86).

    will add more in another comment, have run out of space here

  • rravinetto Raffaella Ravinetto 18 May 2010

    There is also a recent article on Journal of Medical Ethics: "A pilot study evaluating an intervention designed to raise awareness of clinical trials among potential
    participants in the developing world", by Ames Dhai, Harriet Etheredge, Peter Cleaton-Jones. J Med Ethics 2010;36:238e242. doi:10.1136/jme.2009.033407. I did not have the time to read it yet!

  • rravinetto Raffaella Ravinetto 18 May 2010

    There is a 2007 document of TDR on "Ethical challenges in study design and informed consent for health research in resource-poor settings". It includes a chapter on "the impact of community dynamics on conducting scientific research
    in sub-Saharan Africa". I do not know if I can share the pdf through this sytem?

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