Where Should I Start?

The steps in building meaningful person-centered engagement at the organizational level are far from linear. We encourage readers to use the table of contents in the navigation menu at the right to choose steps and activities that best suit their needs and local context. As you roll your cursor over subtopics in the table of contents each entry will display a brief description of what you will find in that section.

If you or your organization is relatively new to person-centered engagement, we recommend beginning within the Planning section. There, you’ll find everything from how to encourage leadership and staff buy-in to developing a planning workgroup to identifying the necessary resources.

If your organization already has some engagement strategies in place, we recommend choosing a sub-section describing a new strategy that you do not currently use. For example, while your organization may have a Patient and Family Advisory Council in place, you might consider supplementing that strategy with a community listening session, broadening the number and type of consumers you hear from. Or, if you are ready to truly engage in collaborative decision-making, you might consider reading the section on adding consumers to your organization’s Board of Directors. For every strategy, you will find convenient links to relevant topics such as recruitment and resource needs.

No matter where your organization falls on the spectrum of engagement, every organization should be thinking about what it can do to overcome health disparities among historically-excluded populations. You can learn so much from the people in your care who directly bear the burdens of social factors such as poverty, racism and cultural insensitivity. Therefore, readers will find information throughout the change package on how best to accomplish this goal.