Shift Happens:co-creating health through cultural partnerships

Significant learning happens when different worlds come together, when you can tolerate that difference and create space for collaboration; then you can begin to innovate in ways that are truly transformational. This presentation will outline how an organic growth in partnership working between a mental health provider and a range of cultural organisations, including the Liverpool Philharmonic and Tate Liverpool, have enabled a cultural shift through creative approaches; transforming the understanding and delivery of care by including new novel partners and embracing the broader issues of social inclusion, participation and wellbeing. An inquiry-based study, which drew on a number of discrete evaluations and utilised appreciative enquiry conversations with staff, service users and artists has generated a wealth of data suggesting that cultural participation facilitates not only an enhanced experience for service users and staff in care settings, but also a transformative process for both individual and organisational well-being. For the individual transformation of the self came from the discovery or renewal of a ‘lost’ identity generated by participation: people articulated this as being no longer simply a person with ‘bi-polar’, but ‘being’ as an artist. Discovery of these identities or strengths at an individual level then shifted patterns at an organisational level and staff vocalised the enhancement of the care planning process, transforming the model of care to place the strengths of the person at the centre. The shift that has occurred will be illustrated through the stories of participants.