Health service staff attitudes to community representatives on committees

PURPOSE: This paper sets out to report attitudes of staff on key health service committees towards community participation before and after appointment of community representatives. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: The paper shows a self-completed questionnaire administered to staff on committees as a baseline measure and 12 months after community representatives had been appointed. FINDINGS: The paper finds that significantly more staff at the follow-up survey reported that they and other staff were clear about the role of community representatives and how to work with them on committees. Significantly more staff at follow-up felt that the health service was ready for this type of initiative. There was no significant increase in the percentage of staff who felt that financial and other supports for community representatives were sufficient and no significant changes in staff views about the potential for community representatives to influence decision making, although there were strong trends in a positive direction. RESEARCH LIMITATIONS/IMPLICATIONS: The study in this paper was conducted in one health service and did not follow changes in attitudes of particular staff over time. Larger samples would be necessary to assess generalisability of findings and future studies should examine in more depth staff beliefs about the role and influence of community members on committees. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: The paper implies that the development of ongoing and constructive relationships between health services and communities clearly takes time and, at least in part, results from direct experience working alongside community members. ORIGINALITY/VALUE: The paper shows that this is the first study examining how the attitudes of health service staff to community participation change over time and as a direct result of interaction with community members on committees. A better understanding of health service staff attitudes to community participation is important for health care managers to effectively address structural and attitudinal barriers to community participation.