An interview with Carol Ingram, a PPIE volunteer

In this video Adele Higginbottom, a Public and Patient Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) coordinator from Keele University talks to Carol Ingram, a member of the Keele Research User Group (RUG) project what it’s like being a PPIE volunteer.

Carol discusses how she first got involved in research and that it was wanting to help others with arthritis that inspired her to approach the Keele Research User Group. In this video you will also learn some of the different ways volunteers can help researchers with their projects; for example through the Keele Research User Group, Carol has had the opportunity to:

• Use her own experiences and knowledge of arthritis to support researchers with their ideas or funding applications
• Provide peer support
• Be an ambassador at events for the research she has been involved in
• Be a co-applicant on research grants
• Be names on research papers
• To join the Keele University Consortium Board

Through Carol and Adele’s discussion you will learn how important it is to have people with lived experience involved with all stages of your research. This video shows how the involvement of volunteers not only benefits your research and service users but can also positively impact the volunteers themselves.

Discuss below how else you think public involvement in research can impact study outcomes? What other benefits do you consider public involvement has for the volunteers themselves?