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It makes sense to involve people in the services being provided for them, with benefits to be gained for all involved. For older people their participation can aid ownership and inclusion, thus promoting citizenship, particularly on the part of those who have previously been excluded (Barnes, 1997).This paper is concerned with the involvement of older people in research into health and social care services. Drawing upon the policy and evidence base, consideration will be made of the different forms that this can take and how best practice regarding the involvement of older people can be promoted.

In this article we report findings from a small scale user‐controlled study which explores involvement and engagement in terms of the legacy of the National Service Framework for Older People (NSFOP) and the new opportunities that are opening up around community well‐being and active citizenship. A key finding of the study is that, when participating in implementation of a major policy initiative, older people's reference groups and forums require good support: practical help with administrative tasks and more professionalised support to help develop members' skills as activists and campaigners. We distill what this means for practice in a commissioning framework which can be used to specify support services that may be provided to older people's groups by external organisations such as the voluntary and community sector. Here, involvement and engagement are understood as a dynamic relationship between three stakeholder groups (older people, the statutory sector, and the voluntary and community sector). We pinpoint likely tensions in these relationships and how they might be addressed.

The purpose of this paper is to describe service user involvement, explain some of the key issues that define, affect or protect mental health in later life and show how involvement may contribute to better mental health in later life.

The paper reviews existing definitions of involvement and mental health in later life; provides a more detailed review of some examples of involvement at a range of levels and illustrates how these could have a positive impact on mental health.

Active involvement and engagement at all levels offers significant opportunities for older people to protect and improve their own mental health and the mental health of society as a whole.

This research does not set out to promote any particular intervention or involvement technique. The examples given have been evaluated in a variety of ways.

Service user involvement should be considered as an important potential contributor to mental health in later life.

The paper encourages people in later life to be considered as a community resource rather than a problem that needs to be solved.

This paper brings together existing research with a focus on the relationship between involvement and individual and collective mental health.

New service models such as intermediate care may find it difficult to involve older people in services that are time‐limited and unfamiliar. Their staff may perceive themselves as having little time to sustain or build relationships with voluntary and community‐based organisations engaged in intermediate care. This article shows how such challenges can be met by drawing on the experiences of voluntary sector projects involved in intermediate care services.

The National Service Framework for Older People (DoH, 2001) is a ten‐year plan which aims radically to improve health services for older people. Central to the plan is the belief that older people should be involved as ‘genuine partners’ in the implementation process. In this article we describe how regional and local implementation teams in the North West of England are working in partnership to develop a coherent and sustainable strategy for engaging with older people.

The importance of providing clear, relevant information and advice for older people has been recognised by health care professionals, politicians and policy makers. Key policies (Better Government for Older People, 1998; Better Care Higher Standards, 2000; National Service Framework for Older People, 2001) have restated the importance of such provision specifically in relation to older people. A literature search and an examination of local authority websites were key sources of information for the study designed to explore the elements of guidelines for good practice. In addition we examined the websites of three major providers of information and advice for older people. Older people's views as to what constitutes good quality information and advice were explored in three focus groups. These four sources of data are the basis for the findings reported in this paper. This paper reports the limitations in the existing provision of information and advice for older people. Key features emerging from the research were that the involvement of older people in every stage of the process of design, production, dissemination and monitoring of information and advice was necessary. Older people valued face‐to‐face contact in the provision of information and advice.

This paper seeks to examine the social construction and barriers that older people face and through two case studies from the Northeast of England and London illustrate how older people can be effectively enabled to influence their communities and the services that impact on their lives.

Age Concern Durham County created a ten‐hour introductory level course called “The Confident Consumer”. This includes basic assertiveness skills, advice on how to challenge discrimination, and uses role play to improve communication skills for older people.

The case studies have demonstrated that older people do want to be involved and are enthusiastic participants when given the opportunity to use their voice.

By reaching out to older people and working actively in partnership with service providers, older people can help to shape their own world.

This article is a collaboration between an academic researcher and four older people who worked together on the evaluation of a pilot project in Gloucestershire, with the aim of ‘making care homes part of our community’. Against a background of increasing public participation in research, we explore the role of ‘community researcher’ and the experiences of those involved. The article starts with an overview of policy and practice developments in relation to public engagement in research. A description is provided of a research project that included recruiting and training ‘community researchers’ to carry out an evaluation of the Partnerships for Older People Project in Gloucestershire. The next section focuses on the experiences of the older people who carried out this role, including some of the benefits and challenges that were encountered. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications for delivering meaningful public engagement in service development and evaluation.