Making Room for Every Voice: Reimagining Person‐Centred Care in the Neurosciences

TL;DR

This paper compiles 38 articles showing how involving people with neurological conditions in care improves outcomes and ethics.

Contribution

It presents a curated collection advocating for person-centered care through co-creation and lived experience inclusion in neurosciences.

Findings

Care is more effective and ethical when people are active partners, not passive recipients.

Relational approaches transform systems and promote autonomy in neurological care.

The issue highlights co-created tools, community-led research, and narrative inquiry.

Abstract

This Special Issue of Health Expectations brings together 38 articles that exemplify the growing commitment to person‐centred care in the neurosciences. Moving beyond a historically brain‐centric model, these contributions reflect a more human discipline that values lived experience alongside clinical expertise.

Spanning a wide range of neurological conditions, life stages and care settings, the papers explore interconnected themes including co‐creation, identity, equity, communication, service redesign, emotional well‐being, innovation and community engagement. The authors in this collection demonstrate that care becomes not only more effective but also more ethical when people are recognised as active partners rather than passive recipients. From co‐designed tools and culturally responsive resources to narrative inquiry and community‐led research, these works reveal the transformative power of relational approaches that reorient systems, promote autonomy and respond to what truly matters to those living with neurological conditions.

Together, these articles challenge longstanding hierarchies and power dynamics, advocating for care that is grounded in trust, reciprocity and compassion. They are more than a snapshot of current practice; they are a call to action, a provocation to imagine what neurological care could become. At its heart, this Special Issue invites researchers, clinicians and communities to co‐create a neuroscience that is more advanced and more attuned to the lives it seeks to serve.

This Special Issue was developed with a focus on highlighting the voices, experiences and expertise of people living with neurological conditions, their families and communities. Many of the 38 articles featured were co‐produced or co‐authored with individuals with lived experience, and we, as Guest Editors, have intentionally curated the issue to centre these perspectives. While patients or members of the public were not directly involved in the writing of this Editorial, their contributions are reflected throughout the Special Issue in the form of participatory research, co‐created resources and narrative accounts. The Editorial itself is informed by these works and seeks to honour their insights by amplifying their relevance and impact within the broader neuroscientific community.