Participatory Approaches in Public Health

This course will introduce you to participatory approaches to public health. You will learn about the history of participatory health research and why it is essential to solving contemporary public health challenges. The course will help you to understand the social and cultural context of public health, before introducing you to essential concepts for working with communities: knowledge and power. Finally, you will engage with critical analyses of participatory approaches, to help you to determine if and when such strategies are appropriate. Throughout the course you will analyse real-world case studies of community-based health projects, including historical HIV social movements, public health projects with sex workers, and participatory approaches to the COVID-19 pandemic. The course will equip you to practice public health in partnership with local communities. It is followed by a second course, Applying Participatory Approaches in Public Health Settings, which builds upon the theoretical foundations of this introductory course.

This course specifically explores approaches and tools and how to apply them in public health settings. Students will learn how to critically analyse the power dynamics present between multidisciplinary stakeholders and appreciate the need for reciprocity between those delivering and those receiving health care; between both those conducting and those participating in research. They will also learn how to select and evaluate different participatory approaches to apply these to public health programmes and/or research. Tools with which to do this include undertaking a stakeholder-mapping exercise and needs assessment, including a critical and reasoned narrative to justify the approach. While this course, as with the rest of the specialisation, focuses on public health and ways of involving citizens and patients in programmes and research, these concepts apply to other disciplines too. So, you don't have to be a public health specialist or work in healthcare to gain insight from this course. If you would like to learn more about the theories and core principles of participation within a public health context, we suggest taking Introduction to Participatory Approaches in Public Health. If you're planning a research project and want to learn more about participation in resaerchs, explore our course Public Involvement in Research.