Patient and Public Involvement Toolkit: Involving LGBTQ+ Unpaid Carers

Impactful social care research that achieves to influence policy and practice needs to draw upon and be informed by the very social groups it wishes to benefit.
There is a gap in a resource for co-productions in research and practice when it comes to LGBTQ+ people, and especially when these are unpaid carers – this is a unique challenge because current best practice indicates that the carer and the person cared for need to be perceived and considered as a unit. Therefore researchers and policy makers need to consider intersectional impacts and implications, that reflect the needs of the LGBTQ+ person and that of the person they care for, who may or may not be LGBTQ+, too.
The leadership of LGBTQ+ individuals and communities in research, policy and practice that concerns those being impacted upon is vital. This project aimed to address a gap in the resources available to support co-production in research and practice. Its focus was on the vital role of unpaid carers as equal partners in developing research that addresses how to provide more tailored support. Our philosophy aimed to take account of the many different identities held by LGBTQ+ unpaid carers and to capitalise on the assets, knowledge and skills that they bring to caring and how best to improve it. The development of the toolkit involved developing processes and outcomes in relation to:
Community engagement and consultation
Identifying and building capacity for research collaboration
Resources for training, supervision and support of LGBTQ+ unpaid carers;
Peer networking and peer support
Evaluation and capturing best practices
Community knowledge exchange