Results discussed in Houses of Parliament (04/08/2006)

On 5th July 2006 the UK and European recommendations were presented and discussed in a dissemination event at the House of Commons.

The complete minutes of the meeting can be downloaded here.

Executive Summary

On Wednesday 5^th July 2006 citizens who took part in the Meeting of Minds, European Citizens’ Deliberation on Brain Science took part in an event to highlight the key citizens’ recommendations on brain science and key learning points about public participation projects to policy-makers and public participation practitioners.

Key Recommendations:

• Provide excellent help for the acute phases of chronic mental illnesses in order to increase the eventual chances of that person leading a “quality life” and to be integrated in society
• Families and private carers should receive financial support – a proportion of the amount it would cost to keep the patient in an institution - so that they are able to provide home care.

• Advisory citizen participation at regional, national and EU levels should be organised in research universities, science organisations and pharmaceutical companies.

• Develop an overall strategy at European level in order to make unbiased information about brain science, including ethical, social and legal aspects, available to a wider public.
• Foster interdisciplinary work among scientific experts and between scientific experts and social scientists.
• Coach scientists from the outset to use common language when talking about their work without oversimplifying the information.

• Impose informed consent regulation for brain imaging techniques and prohibit their use by the police or in judicial investigations or for public security reasons.

Key points about Public Participation:

• Processes must be as transparent as possible, and this is more difficult in a multi-lingual large group at European level.
• The government should encourage long lasting public participation projects rather than [for example] one-day focus groups
• Public participation processes in the UK should be run at arm’s length of government, ideally by museums or universities but funded by government.
• Process resulted in a 3 way dialogue (between citizens and scientists/stakeholders, but also between scientists and stakeholders)
• For public participation to influence policy makers there needs to be a route to get the recommendations to the relevant people in government.
• This is not a one size fits all process. Any new projects will again require a process designed to meet intended outcomes.

For further information or to comment on these minutes please contact Dr. Tom Ziessen (UK project manager) at tom.ziessen@nmsi.ac.uk