Better Health in Harder Times

"This invaluable text will ensure that the current political rhetoric 'no decision about me without me' will become the inclusive, collaborative reality, so urgently required in the current austere health economy." Roswyn Hakesley-Brown CBE, Chair, The Patients Association

"A wealth of fascinating and insightful reflections on the relationship between people and their healthcare. A must-read for all: the ‘usual suspects’ and those coming new to the field, particularly those charged with taking this agenda forward in today's NHS." Sally Brearley, Faculty of Health and Social Care Sciences, Kingston University and St George's University of London

Celia Davies is Professor Emerita of Health Care at The Open University. She is a sociologist with a longstanding interest in ways of working in the health professions and more recently in patient and public engagement. She carried out a pioneering small study of lay members on health professional regulatory bodies in 2000, has recently audited one of its public consultation procedures for the GMC, and is now herself a lay member on the General Pharmaceutical Council. She was co-author of Citizens at the Centre: deliberative participation in healthcare decisions (Policy Press 2006 – a study of the establishment of the Citizens Council at NICE.

Ray Flux has worked as an independent consultant on the interface between clinical professions and services and the people who use or work in conjunction with them, for more than 20 years, following 10 years at the King’s Fund. He works to develop partnerships and dialogue in health economies at local and regional levels, combining process design, facilitating and analytical skills in attempts to promote mutual understanding of different facets of fulfilling potential for high quality healthy lives and possible collaborations for doing this. He writes extensively for clients within his portfolio of projects. He is currently director of Civil Eyes Development Ltd and works in a variety of collaborative teams and networks.

Mike Hales addresses innovation in technical-professional domains, including healthcare (as an NHS service user), from a perspective of self-management and the bottom-up, participatory design of work practice and technology. He is author of Living thinkwork: where do labour processes come from? and Science or society: the politics of the work of scientists.

Jan Walmsley is Visiting Professor Leadership and Workforce Development at London South Bank University and Visiting Professor in the History of Learning Disability at the Open University and formerly Assistant Director at The Health Foundation. She runs her own independent research consultancy. She was a close associate of Bob Sang, with whom she developed ideas about bringing leadership development in health care and active citizenship into closer alignment. Her most recent books are Community Care in Perspective: Care, Control and Citizenship (Palgrave 2006), co-edited with John Welshman, and Towards a Good Life for People with Intellectual Disabilities (Policy Press 2010), co-authored with Kelley Johnson.

Introduction: What business are we really in? Long-term illness and the self-management of wellbeing; The philosophy of quality - not just ticking boxes: enquiry, stakeholders, and enabling different choices; How can information technology work for wellbeing? Dialogue, data and digital media; How can we really work together? Governance arrangements to meet the challenges of active citizenship and co-production; What kind of leadership to support co creation? Education, learning and active citizenship: Afterword