User Involvement is an umbrella term used to describe involving people in Health and Social Care (HSC). It is a process whereby Service Users, Carers and the public are empowered and enabled to inform and influence the commissioning, planning, delivery and evaluation of HSC services in ways that are relevant and meaningful to them. You may also hear this being referred to as PPI and/or Co-Production.
Did you know?
All Health and Social Care organisations have a statutory duty to involve the people who use their services with the aim of providing safe, high quality and effective care. This includes people who have stayed in hospital, attended appointments, received care in their own homes or have any experience of using Health and Social Care services, as well as their carers and family members.
There are lots of ways to get involved – planning and setting up new services, having your say in how current services are provided and making sure services are suitable to the needs of the people who are using them.
People who use our services, their carers and family members will be encouraged and supported to get involved in ways that they feel are important to them.
-
How to get involved
At the Southern Health and Social Care Trust, we offer opportunities for people who use our services, their carers, family members and friends to work together with us to review what we do well, highlight what we could do better and find solutions to how we can improve in the future.
We can only do this when we listen and learn from the views and opinions of a wide range of people in our community who have used our services. We appreciate that everybody’s experience of health care is different which is why we want to hear from you.
There are many ways to get involved. This can range from a one-off opportunity where you spend a few minutes filling in a questionnaire to more regular involvement in areas you have experience in. We are very flexible and will always support you to get involved in ways that suit you around your commitments and availability.
Please get in touch with the User Involvement Team to have a chat about what you may be interested in doing and learn more about current opportunities.
Receive emails providing updates about opportunities to get involved, examples of how people who use our services have worked with us and the positive impact of User Involvement across our services.
To sign up, please click on this link.
To learn more go to the Engage and Involve site at: Personal & Public Involvement (PPI) – Involving You, Improving Care
-
Case Studies
Powerful things happen when service users get involved! Here are some example of recent projects:
Community Addictions Podcast
The Southern Health and Social Care Trust Community Addictions Service staff co- produced a podcast with service users that have used the Addiction Service (past and present) to share real, powerful stories about addiction, recovery, and hope.
This valuable resource was co-produced with compassion and care, the project respectfully gave service users a true authentic voice, while working to challenge the stigma of addiction. To protect anonymity the service users used pseudonyms, but their experiences can be heard on the QR code for the podcast.
It’s a celebration of honesty, resilience, and partnership—showing the impact of meaningful involvement in shaping better services for the future.
Click here to listen to this episode.
Seasons of life Project
The season of life is a unique programme using art and storytelling, whilst, supporting young people across the Southern Trust area to cope with bereavement or loss of a family member, or significant life events.
Co-designed by the young people and health and social care professionals. The Seasons of Life workshops are delivered in schools by a multi-disciplinary team, including the specialist school nursing team, paediatric psychology, the Trust bereavement co-ordinator, User Involvement team and Cruse bereavement support.
User Involvement 2024-2025
- 46 new involvement representatives registered
- 138 opportunities for involvement created
- 31 active service user/carer groups
- 623 staff, service users and carers in training.
-
Meet the User Involvement Team
Kevin Duggan
Head Of Community Development and User Involvement
028 37 564469
kevin.duggan@southerntrust.hscni.net
Lisa Polland
Senior User Involvement Development Officer
028 37 564496
lisa.polland@southerntrust.hscni.net
Kathleen O’Hare
User Involvement Development Officer
028 37 564470
kathleen.ohare@southerntrust.hscni.net
Judith Anderson
User Involvement Admin Support
028 37 564474
judith.anderson@southerntrust.hscni.net
Sinead Newbert
User Involvement Development Officer
028 37 564473
-
Contact Us
For more information on User Involvement and how to get involved, please contact the User Involvement Team.
Email: user.involvement@southerntrust.hscni.net
Phone: 028 3756 4474
If you are unable to reach us via phone, please use the above email address and a member of our team will get in touch with you as soon as possible.