Talk about a working weekend. On Saturday I facilitated a session for the Department of Health's huge consultation event in Birmingham. A thousand members of the public attended - brought in on buses from all over England. I had 10 people in my group ranging from 21 to 83 years of age with a whole catalogue of health issues! It was much more fun than it sounds! Particularly enjoyable was the voting which was done periodically throughout the day on individual key pads. The results could be seen instantly on screen. It complemented the qualitative aspect quite well as people explained their reasoning in the group discussions.
To keep energy levels high we had a 10 minute session of aerobics led by a specialist instructor from Birmingham City Council. The 83 year old joined in with gusto, but the men all went to queue for the loo! On that note we ended up having an interesting discussion about men's attitudes to health overall and I notice today that all three leaders of the main political parties are joining forces to promote prostate cancer awareness.
The whole event was modelled on American style town meetings pioneered by America Speaks but I feel it transferred fairly well to a British setting. The day got quite a lot of press interest and was featured on quite a few news channels. I was grateful not to be one of my colleagues who was in the 'studio room' and her group had to be webcast live across the Department of Health's website.
The main question on everyone's lips is "was it worth the money?". I think what my participants appreciated the most was their hotel visit. One of my participants had not spent a night away from home in 40 years!
