Building alliances: professional and political issues in community participation. Examples from a health and community development project

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Abstract
The notion of community participation in health finds favour in many circles, since, lacking close definition, it can be interpreted in such a way as to be acceptable to all political persuasions. This paper explores some of the consequences of these multiple interpretations and gives examples from a community development and health promotion project in Scotland. Professional attitudes and behaviour and bureaucratic structures are seen as significant barriers to public participation in health. Fundamental changes in the state of the public health are blocked by a medical model which emphasizes individual responsibility and treatment. It is argued that the public must retain ‘ownership’ of the problems they define and the solutions to those problems. Professionals need to share their skills, rather than impose them, and learn, in their turn, about the world inhabited by disadvantaged groups.

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