Although there is increasing attention to the importance of "engaging" clients in health services --particularly underserved clients -- there is no apparent agreement on the most appropriate definition of "engagement" nor on either the most effective approaches to engagement and to measuring the outcome of engagement stratgegies. This paper presents the results of a symposium held in April 2001 to address issues related to client engagement. This symposium, which address engagement of both health and social services clients generally and children and women particularly, is designed to yield a concensus-based definition of engagement, descriptions of evidence-based effective approaches to engaging children and women in health and social services, and to elucidate research methods to asssess the effectiveness of engagement strategies. The results of this symposium will be presented and used as the basis for discussion among participants.
Learning Objectives: At the end of the session, participants will be able to: 1) Describe alternative definitions of client engagement 2) Describe at least 5 approaches demonstrated to be effective in engaging clients in health services 3) Describe approaches to evaluating the effectiveness of client engagement 4) Describe specific process and outcome measures related to client engagement
Keywords: Underserved Populations, Family Involvement
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
Disclosure not received
Relationship: Not Received.