Abstract
Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and mental well-being are shaped across the life course by interacting social, cultural, environmental and health-system determinants. Responding to this complexity requires implementation approaches that are rooted in community priorities, culturally embedded and capable of bringing health and non-health sectors into sustained collaboration. This round table examines how participatory methods can support such collaborations while enabling co-production, equitable decision-making and epistemic plurality. The session brings together five case-based provocations from Brazil, Dominica, Kenya, the United Kingdom and the wider Caribbean. It asks: how can participatory methods help translate community-generated knowledge into equitable, culturally legitimate and sustainable multisectoral collaborations for NCD prevention and mental health promotion? The first contribution draws on the IMPACT programme in Dominica and Brazil, showing how adolescent-led vignettes and Photovoice are being used to engage adolescents, teachers, health services, parents and community champions in the co-development of school-based mental health promotion. The second presents BELONG in the UK, where concept mapping and collaborative sense-making built collaboration between hair salons, health services and community champions to improve uptake of NHS Health Checks and annual reviews among women in deprived and ethnically diverse neighbourhoods. The third presents the HEKIMA studies in Kenya, which co-develop community market–primary care partnerships to address inequalities in cardiovascular disease prevention and control among rural and urban populations, including nomadic pastoralist Maasai communities. The fourth discusses participatory intercultural adaptation of WHO mhGAP (mental health Gap Action Programme) training materials in Indigenous communities in Brazil, showing how biomedical guidance can be adapted with Indigenous knowledge systems, traditional care networks and ethical power-sharing. The fifth presents SMARThealth Caribbean, which uses community-based co-design to adapt a digitally aided platform for cardiovascular disease prevention.
Format
The round table compares vignettes, Photovoice, concept mapping, intercultural co-adaptation and digital co-design as routes to multisectoral collaboration. To maximise interaction, the chair will open with an audience poll on benefits and challenges to building multisectoral collaborations. Five 6-minute provocations will be followed by a moderated “what would you do?” exchange around two cross-case dilemmas: how to share power without slowing implementation, and how to sustain partnerships after funded research ends. Audience members will work with panellists to generate practical design principles for participatory, multisectoral implementation research that is equitable, culturally embedded and scalable.
Key messages
• Participatory methods can support multisectoral collaborations for NCD prevention and mental health promotion while enabling co-production, equitable decision-making and epistemic plurality.
• Complexity of addressing NCD prevention and mental health promotion requires community-rooted, culturally embedded approaches that bring health and non-health sectors into sustained collaboration.