Self Management and Health Literacy: Challenge 1 What do you do to keep yourself well?
As a GP I’ve been trained to try and fix things that go wrong with people. People expect to be fixed. All very well until someone has a long term condition which they have to live with and endure. Our focus on fixing what is wrong (a deficit approach) can often make people neglect what they themselves can achieve to promote their own wellness ( an asset approach). Asking the “what keeps you well?” question is a powerful one. It can help people realise that they can be an active agent in improving their well being. Also many people know remarkable ways of keeping well which are worth capturing and sharing with others. My challenge is how can we put that question to people in a way that will help them reflect on their abilities and enable us to capture these wonderful assets to share with others and help build a picture of what wellness is in my community?
When I read this challenge I was immediately intrigued about where the journey would lead. I felt the need to understand what this question really meant and how I could enable opportunities from researching with a Design approach.
What is the question really about? At first glance I thought it was attempting to understand what people with Long Term conditions do to keep well, however with further reflection I understood it to be more than this. How can we put that question to people in a way that will help them reflect on their abilities and enable us to capture these wonderful assets to share with others and help build a picture of what wellness is in my community? This for me, is about understanding individual perspectives, people being enabled to share information with professionals, organisations and their communities to create an environment where people are valued and recognised in being assets. This question is about sharing a common language and being able to communicate effectively to enable individuals rich understanding and experiences.
What I would like to understand within this challenge is how a service design approach to this question could create an environment where the Profession, organisation and community are enabled with a voice. Through sharing these voices and working with the groups using design tools and methods including interviews, observation, mapping and prototyping, I would like to create empathy and increase awareness of individual perspectives and the understanding it brings from knowing these. From this I would like to explore the groups realisations from these activities and explore opportunities which arise from their clearer understanding and knowledge.
As a Designer I am committed to the principles of participation and collaboration and believe that co design enables people to move forward towards opportunities, which otherwise would be left unknown.
Why did I choose this project?
So people can share their ways and understanding about how they keep well and how it may have a positive impact on their and others wellness
Because I want to make peoples lives better
Because I believe that by implementing a service design approach there is the opportunity to enable communities, organisations and professionals to share valuable perspectives towards improvement.
What is the Benefit?
Could the benefits be, increased empathy between the Professionals, organisations and patients because they are interacting with each other and understanding individual perspectives?
Increased individual satisfaction
Improved individual experiences
Move toward – a common language
Mutual appreciation
Improve relationships
Creating opportunities together
More sustainable future’s – could sharing wellness within the community and having the environment to do so, reduce demand on services, therefore reducing financial and staffing burdens?
Who will it benefit?
Patients
Healthcare professionals
NHS
Designers
University
Government
So with this in mind and the potential to benefit so much, how can I not be invested in this project? I am looking forward to a journey which I am sure will be full of rich insights…
I would be interested to hear your thoughts…
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