What Matters to US (Users of Services) in Shared Care and Decision Making

• This collaborative research has been undertaken with service users and carers in the West Yorkshire region by 4 West Yorkshire Universities – Bradford, Huddersfield, Leeds and Leeds Metropolitan. It has been funded by the ALPS programme (Assessment and Learning in Practice Settings) CETL (Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning.
• This presentation will report on the outcomes of the research project.
• The aim of the research, which is almost complete, is to establish the essential skills and attributes that health and social care practitioners require to enable service user participation in decision making about their care.
• The research involved focus groups with service users and carers to establish criteria that formed the basis for a survey that was sent out to wider group of service user/carers , students and academics. The survey contained a number of statements related to shared care and decision making between professionals, patients/service users and carers.
• Analysis will include a comparison of responses from the three groups of people included. The research outcomes will be used to inform health and social care practitioner education.
• This study is an example of the involvement of service users and carers in research and successful collaborative work.