Participating together in CP-ACHIEVE: Experiences, opportunities and reflections from a collaborative research team of people with lived experience of cerebral palsy and health care professionals

The Australian Centre for Health, Independence, Economic participation and Value Enhanced care for adolescents and young adults with Cerebral Palsy (CP-ACHIEVE) is a Centre of Research Excellence (CRE), funded for 5-year by the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia. The vision of CP-ACHIEVE is an Australia where people with cerebral palsy receive excellent healthcare throughout their lives and live in, and contribute to, supportive communities that welcome and enable their participation. CP-ACHIEVE began with the ethical commitment to bring together people with lived experience of cerebral palsy, researchers, and health professionals to develop and conduct research informed by, and relevant to, people with cerebral palsy and their allies. From inception, co-research and collaboration with (not 'to' or 'about') young people with cerebral palsy (10 to 30 years of age) and their families has been central to our work. In this paper, we describe the CP-ACHIEVE values, structure and strategy for this approach, and its implementation at each stage of the research process. We then provide an example of the strategy in action, using a qualitative exploration of CP-ACHIEVE's Participation Theme team's experiences of collaboration and involvement as co-researchers. Active participation in research for young people with lived experience of cerebral palsy and their families is a fundamental human right, based on their right to be active agents in decisions that affect them. In this paper we explore how our collaborative approach, and the integration of diverse views, has enhanced the relevance, quality, usefulness, and translation of our research. We also describe (i) the structural elements of our research group that have facilitated our work together, (ii) our challenges, and (iii) how the ownership of our research by people with cerebral palsy is driving future research directions and empowering involvement of people with lived experience beyond CP-ACHIEVE. We offer this knowledge and our experiences to assist other research teams in their journeys towards collaborative research alongside people with lived experience of disability.