Collaboration, user involvement and education: a systematic review of the literature and report of an educational initiative.

Collaboration is advocated widely through government policy as part of enormous change within the Health Service (Department of Health 1998, 2000b). Directives from policy regarding collaboration impact onto organizations, professions and individuals including users of the service. A literature review suggests that there would appear to be limited anecdotal, discursive or rigorous evidence available on collaboration at all levels including involving users. However, literature does demonstrate a mounting body of evidence that collaboration with users is being promoted as a way of working. This paper reviews the literature around collaboration and user involvement in the context of cancer care. Findings suggest that there is confusion of terminology around collaboration and user involvement. Benefits of and barriers to user involvement are identified and these are explored in the context of caring for the patient with cancer. An evaluation of a team-based educational initiative designed to help health-care professionals working within the cancer arena to explore ways to collaborate with users is presented. Findings suggest that education may be one way to develop collaboration between health-care professionals and service users.