Child health services research with the people who know best: experiences and lessons from CanChild’s collaborations with families.

“This paper describes CanChild’s 30-year history of collaboration with families of children with neurodisabilities, outlining how these partnerships shaped research, knowledge sharing, and implementation efforts. ENVISAGE is showcased as one of these programs, along with the F-words and Family Engagement in Research. The article also highlights emerging engagement with young people with lived experience.

CanChild believe that this paper is an important contribution to the field in light of the growing expectation that health services research meaningfully include people with lived experience. The article concludes with reflections on lessons learned that may benefit other research centres.”

Chambers E, Cross A, Grahovac D, Hughes D, Micsinszki S, Pavlic MN, Pozniak K, Rosenbaum P, Teplicky R, Tomas V and Wright M (2026) Child health services research with the people who know best: experiences and lessons from CanChild’s collaborations with families. Front. Public Health 14:1761542. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2026.1761542