title: End-of-life conversations and care: an asset-based model for community engagement.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Public awareness work regarding palliative and end-of-life care is increasingly promoted within national strategies for palliative care. Different approaches to undertaking this work are being used, often based upon broader educational principles, but little is known about how to undertake such initiatives in a way that equally engages both the health and social care sector and the local communities. An asset-based community engagement approach has been developed that facilitates community-led awareness initiatives concerning end-of-life conversations and care by identifying and connecting existing skills and expertise.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  (1) To describe the processes and features of an asset-based community engagement approach that facilitates community-led awareness initiatives with a focus on end-of-life conversations and care; and (2) to identify key community-identified priorities for sustainable community engagement processes.
  
  
  METHODS
  An asset-based model of community engagement specific to end-of-life issues using a four-step process is described (getting started, coming together, action planning and implementation). The use of this approach, in two regional community engagement programmes, based across rural and urban communities in the northwest of England, is described.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The assets identified in the facilitated community engagement process encompassed people's talents and skills, community groups and networks, government and non-government agencies, physical and economic assets and community values and stories. Five priority areas were addressed to ensure active community engagement work: information, outreach, education, leadership and sustainability.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A facilitated, asset-based approach of community engagement for end-of-life conversations and care can catalyse community-led awareness initiatives. This occurs through the involvement of community and local health and social care organisations as co-creators of this change across multiple sectors in a sustainable way. This approach provides a framework for other communities seeking to engage with public awareness in end-of-life issues.
authors.affiliation: The Conversations for Life Programme, Stories to Change, CIC, Staveley, Cumbria, UK.
authors.forename: Mary
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Matthiesen
authors.affiliation: International Observatory on End of Life Care, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK.
authors.forename: Katherine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Froggatt
authors.affiliation: Cheshire and Merseyside Clinical Networks, Bromborough, UK.
authors.forename: Elaine
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Owen
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Public Health, London, UK Department of Public Health, NHS Cumbria, UK.
authors.forename: John R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Ashton
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001293:Attitude to Death; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D010166:Palliative Care; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D013727:Terminal Care
keywords: Supportive care; advance care planning; community development; palliative care; public health & end of life care; social change