Benefits and challenges of generating community participation

This article conveys important and useful information that practitioners can apply in their day-to-day professional lives by including citizen-consumer-client participation in their, work. Three collaborative action projects are described that yielded significant benefits both for local communities and broader policy. These interventions, which were on topics as diverse as tobacco use among youth, recidivism among substance abusers, and chronic fatigue syndrome, were greatly enhanced by the involvement of citizens. The case studies are presented in such a way that the reader has a sense of how, when, and in what ways the interventions were collaborative as well as what the outcomes have been vis-a-vis public policy. The article is intended to encourage professional psychologists to collaborate more fully with community groups in efforts to expand and improve behavioral health services and policies.