The voices of lived experience: reflections from citizen team members in a long-term care research program

Abstract

Plain English Summary Engaging people with lived experience on research teams is becoming more of an expectation for researchers. Published research on this type of engaged research often focuses on the researcher experience with partnered research and neglects the citizen perspective. We are the citizen members of the Translating Research in Elder Care (TREC) program of research, a research program focused on older adults living in nursing homes. Known as VOICES (Voice Of (potential) Incoming residents, Caregivers Educating uS) we aim to share our experiences of working within a large research team. In this commentary we reflect on the pitfalls and opportunities for citizen engagement and reflect on findings from a recent paper published by the research team on the experience of citizen engagement over time.

Keywords

• Citizen engagement
• Patient engagement
• Health services research
• Engagement science