Collaborative and participatory research methods reflect ideals to undertake research in consultation and partnership with communities and to advance community empowerment and capacity. They offer ethical and practical approaches for conducting research addressing socioeconomic and health disparities particularly in marginalised or vulnerable communities. Peer-interviewing is one such participatory strategy employed in studies involving hard-to-reach populations. However, while the value of peer-interviewing for researchers is noted in the methodological literature, there are few discussions that critically examine the benefits and challenges of using peer-researcher approaches, either for the interviewers themselves or the communities they represent. This study reports the findings from a qualitative study that explored the experiences of peer-interviewers who were involved in undertaking community surveys of residents in the socioeconomically disadvantaged neighbourhoods in which they lived. We discuss the benefits and challenges that participants reported from their involvement.
The General Practice Education, Support and Community Linkages Program was introduced to formally support implementation and appropriate use of the Enhanced Primary Care Medicare Benefits Schedule items. This paper reports upon the Program?s implementation from the allied health professional?s perspective. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in 2002 with healthcare staff trained under the Program. While interviewees noted achievements in the items? uptake during the Program, allied health involvement in case conferencing and care planning had been impeded by GPs? limited adoption of the items. Allied health professionals were broadly interested in participating in care planning and case conferencing with GPs. The General Practice Education, Support and Community Linkages Program supported implementation and appropriate use of the Enhanced Primary Care Medicare Benefits Schedule items. While allied health professionals are generally interested in participating in care planning and case conferencing with GPs, such activity requires ongoing systems support and relationship building. Ample scope remains for awareness raising, relationship building and joint activities across the sector. Future item usage will need to be supported by resources and continued relationship building.
The General Practice Education, Support and Community Linkages Program (the Program) supported uptake of the Enhanced Primary Care (EPC) Medicare Benefits Schedule items. A goal underpinning the Program was to build the capacity of Divisions of General Practice to support GPs' EPC item usage. Capacity building was operationalised as: workforce development, organisational development, and resource allocation. This paper reports on the extent to which the Program built the Divisions' capacity to support GPs' EPC item usage. Telephone interviews were conducted with participating Division Chief Executive Officers (CEOs), EPC Coordinators and GP Trainers. Division CEOs, EPC Coordinators and GP trainers corroborated that the Program contributed to Divisions' capacity to support GPs' EPC item usage. Responses reflected interviewees' respective roles and position in Divisions. Given CEOs' strategic roles, they were more positive about the Program, EPC Coordinators and GP Trainers were less positive, given their pragmatic roles. It appeared that respondents had not explicitly considered the Program as a capacity building exercise. We infer that they may have been too close to implementation to see the Program's overarching policy and strategy. The evaluation highlighted the importance of implementing and evaluating capacity building initiatives explicitly using capacity building frameworks. To assist program sustainability, future schemes in the general practice setting would benefit from an explicit reference to capacity building in their stated objectives.
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