Roles and responsibilities of public involvement committees in the Vancouver/Richmond health region : how are things going?

Governments world-wide have shifted towards the concept of public participation in health decision making. In Vancouver, British Columbia, 7 geographically-based Community Health Committees (CHCs) and 8 population-based Population Health Advisory Committees (PHACs) have been set up as public involvement committees to assist and advise the Vancouver/Richmond Health Board (V/RHB). The activities of the committees include health planning, involving the community, and evaluating health services. The purpose of this study was threefold: to explore the clarity of the stated roles and responsibilities for the committees; to explore the level of participation of the committees; and to compare and contrast the perceived vs. stated roles and responsibilities of the committees. A written questionnaire was distributed to all committee members, and to the staff who work with them (N=123). The questions were written to reflect the stated roles and responsibilities of the CHCs and PHACs. Thirty-four questionnaires were returned (27.6%). Respondents felt the stated roles and responsibilities were, on average, moderately clear; however, the words "assist and advise" were not clear and led to uncertainty about how the committees would specifically be involved. Respondents also felt the committees should have had a greater level of involvement than they actually had at the time of the survey. Finally, respondents felt they had been most involved in health planning and least involved in evaluating health services. Mobilizing public interest in participation had sometimes been difficult. Subsequent focus group sessions verified the results of the questionnaire, despite its low response rate. The implications of these findings suggest the V/RHB may facilitate the public participation process by: 1) further clarifying the roles and responsibilities of the committees - orientation to roles and topics relevant to the committee activities; 2) by providing more direction to the committees especially when it is requested; and 3) by soliciting more public interest in participating through a renewed region-wide publicity effort.Medicine, Faculty ofPopulation and Public Health (SPPH), School ofGraduat