Purpose of research: The purpose of this research was to promote the involvement and intervention of patient-partners (PPs) in collective sessions of therapeutic patient education (TPE), including training and support for the implementation of these sessions, in co-facilitation with a health professional (HP). Therefore, the matter was to co-construct a training model, to experiment with its implementation and to define favorable conditions for this collaboration.
Methods: Collaborative research oriented by the design, led by a steering committee representative of different categories of stakeholders, which has been spread over 2 years, in Paris area and Montpellier, in 4 phases: 1/ exploration (bibliographic review and investigation); 2/ recruitment of PPs affected by different pathologies; 3/ implementation and evaluation of PPs training in inter-pathology; 4/ implementation and evaluation of co-facilitated group sessions.
Results: 35 patients solicited, 24 (69%) included. Of these, 22 (92%) completed the training entirely; 17 sessions were conducted in co-facilitation (15 planned) for 151 patients (150 expected). Satisfaction rates for PPs, HPs and patient beneficiaries were very high.
Conclusions: This research validated a training model for patient-partners in therapeutic education and identified some conditions that could facilitate their integration into TPE programs.