Beyond the Crisis: Transforming Health Systems Through Community Engagement

How can we effectively partner during crises? How can partnership with communities, patients, caregivers, providers and leaders be sustained and even evolve during difficult times? The opening paper of this special issue (Kuluski et al. 2024) probed these questions. The six response papers in this issue emphasized engagement that moves from partnership with individuals and communities to efforts that are led by communities; trauma-informed approaches at an individual and organizational level; and shed light on the interdependency of culture and leadership. By broadening our engagement efforts with communities, we are more apt to co-produce improvements in care that also address the social determinants of health.