CER During Health Crises

This article was written by Simran Purewal, who recently completed her MSc in Comparative Social Policy at the University of Oxford and co-author of the CER during Health Crises Handbook. The handbook was published by SFU CERi in collaboration with the Pacific Institute on Pathogens, Pandemics, and Society (PIPPS). What is a CSO? Why is CER important in health crises? Learn more in this article!

The COVID-19 pandemic halted community-engaged research projects and partnerships. With rapidly evolving public health measures, such as physical distancing and business closures, partnerships were forced to suspend their critical research, or swiftly adapt to uncertain environments. However, researchers and civil society organizations (CSOs) lacked guidance on how to conduct ethical, safe community-engaged research amidst this health crisis.

In March 2023, researchers at the Pacific Institute on Pathogens, Pandemics, and Society (PIPPS) and SFU Community-Engaged Research Initiative (CERi) teamed up to develop a handbook providing guidance on community-engaged research with CSOs during infectious disease and other public health crises. The aim of this handbook is to offer community-engaged researchers considerations and tools to engage with CSOs and conduct research that aligns with communities’ needs.

What are CSOs?

CSOs are socially-driven, not-for-profit agencies operating separately from the private sector and government. These organizations assume several formal and informal roles, like connecting researchers with priority populations, offering direct services and information, and amplifying and mobilizing the voices of marginalized communities.  Given their unique position as community leaders, CSOs may also act as intermediaries between priority populations and policymakers.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, CSOs played a crucial role in advocating for priority populations and provided frontline services, ranging from translating complex public health information, to connecting diverse populations with health and social care resources. They are embedded within the communities they serve, playing a key role in addressing health and social inequities exacerbated by the COVID-19 crisis. 

About the handbook

Several research projects are initiated by CSOs seeking to address needs identified by the communities they serve. Yet, there is a lack of guidance tailored to this audience, particularly during health crises. As such, this handbook serves to fill this significant knowledge gap. We highlight key considerations for community-engaged partnerships, adapting existing context to times at which traditional forms of engagement, like in-person gatherings, are not permitted. We place close attention to ethical relationship building, offering guiding principles as well as actionable recommendations. The handbook also contains seven tools to mobilize prior to, during, and after community-engaged research projects.

This handbook, published in November 2023, builds on the meaningful work previously published by SFU CERi, including the 2021 Guide to Community-Engaged Research and Community-Engaged Research Ethical Principles. In the months prior to launching the handbook, PIPPS and CERi jointly hosted a collaborative roundtable discussion with community-engaged researchers based at SFU. In doing so, we provided an opportunity to break down silos and share lessons learned from conducting community-engaged research amid the pandemic. Researchers discussed their challenges, successes, and lessons they continue to carry forward in their partnerships today. An informative summary of the roundtable discussion can also be found in the handbook.

By incorporating insight from past health crises and tailoring existing community-engaged research principles, this handbook presents a set of adaptable tools and considerations intended to facilitate continued engagement and mutual capacity building with CSOs during these critical times.

The handbook is available here.

You can also read our brief article published by The Conversation (https://theconversation.com/preparing-for-the-next-health-crisis-covid-19-showed-the-importance-of-community-engaged-research-224669) in which we summarise key points raised during our roundtable discussion with community-engaged researchers.