Call for local people for weekend ‘Citizen’s Jury’ A pioneering project set up by local GPs, the NHS and Buckinghamshire County Council will be involving local people in discussing and deciding on priorities for service developments for people suffering from dementia and their carers in the County.

The Buckinghamshire Citizen’s Jury, which is funded as a pilot project by the Department of Health, will be held over a weekend in September (17 -19 September) at the Clare Foundation in Saunderton. A jury of 12 local people will spend the weekend looking at the needs of patients and their carers and then debating and making recommendations about prioritising resources. During this process they will be able to call on ‘expert witnesses’ such as doctors and nurses, dementia sufferers and their carers, who will provide information and who the jury can question about their experiences. The Jury recommendations will influence the way in which NHS and social care services develop in the future.

The project is now asking for members of the community with an interest in or experience of services for dementia sufferers to volunteer to get involved. From those who step forward, Jury members will be selected with the aim of ensuring that they are representative of a wide range of Buckinghamshire residents, taking into where people live, their age and other factors. Participants will be paid expenses (including child care or a carer’s fee) and a nominal amount for attending the weekend (which is not residential). Jury members will be trained and supported throughout the process and the event will be run by experienced facilitators. Others who have expressed an interest but who are not picked as Jury members will be able to get involved in the project in other ways.

The ‘Citizens’ Jury’ model was developed initially in the United States and has been used extensively for communities to discuss a wide variety of issues, including health priorities. Project manager Julie Wells says “over recent years, health and social care organisations have got better at listening to patients, carers and local communities, but there is still some way to go. We are keen on encouraging involvement from people who would not normally join a committee or an interest group, and who may have little or no previous experience of getting involved in a health issue in this way. The Citizens’ Jury model is not by any means the only way of engaging the local population. It does, however, provide an opportunity for a group of people representative of different aspects of the community to come together, to consider an issue in depth and to reach a common understanding about priorities. I am delighted that the Department of Health has chosen to support this project and hope that the findings will be useful, not only locally but nationally.”

Local GP Dr Kevin Suddes, who is involved in the project, said: “We have an agreed strategy in Buckinghamshire to improve the information and support which dementia sufferers and their carers receive from health and social care services. However, we can’t afford to do everything we would like to do, or to do it all at once. The is a valuable exercise which will help us to understand the views of people with an interest in or experience of dementia, which will help to shape our future developments. I would urge anyone with an interest in this important issue to think about getting involved. Your views could make a big difference.”

Based on information supplied by Emily MacDonald.