‘Hidden’ challenges -Made by Mortals workshop
On the 25th of July ARC NWC staff and member organisations met at The Gujarat Hindu Temple and Community Centre in Preston to be guided through a participatory arts workshop delivered by award winning Community Interest Company Made by Mortals. The workshop consisted of a series of immersive audio, film and live theatre productions, which bring to life people’s experience of a particular health or social issue. Reflecting on ARC NWC’s own ethos Made by Mortals also use Co-production, co-design and community as the driving force for each of its projects.
Each episode is co-produced with professional artists, partners in research, health and social care and people with lived experience of a particular topic, for example, dementia, mental health illness, financial exploitation or domestic abuse. Together, they collaboratively use their creativity, knowledge and imaginations to produce a fictional story inspired by real issues they have experienced.
The ‘Hidden’ sessions enable participants to encompass the lives of a fictional character in this case Richard and understand from a different viewpoint the strife of an individual who may individual have health or social care problems may endure. Using the additional audio alongside the main ‘Hidden’ episodes, the programme is being used to innovate in Public and Patient Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) and bring about positive change in health and social care.
Theme Manager of Equitable Place Based Health and Care (EPHC) theme and Neighbourhood Co-Ordinator Paula Wheeler highlighted the importance of the sessions, “We are excited to be working with Made by Mortals in co-producing immersive and creative approaches to eliciting the lived experiences of our communities in the North West Coast.
Public involvement and engagement is embedded in all our applied research in ARC but we recognise that our model can be strengthened as we engage seldom heard groups and those population groups who might not typically be involved in research. Collaborating with MDM offered an opportunity to learn more about how participatory arts approaches can be adopted and the workshop was a chance for researchers and practitioners to understand more.”
Paula continued to say “The use of music to frame feelings and perspectives from individuals with lived experience of mental health and young people was extremely emotional and moving. It told a story more powerful that words on a page.”
Chantelle Bennett, Community Participation and Engagement Manager at the NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board said “It was a real appreciation for the way the arts can bring people’s lived experiences to life in way that’s not always possible in a report! Through the day I was moved and challenged hearing the stories of Richard and others, and it would be fantastic to be able to bring this storytelling to a wider audience of clinicians and decision-makers.”
ARC NWC Public Involvement manager Selina Wallis who took time away from her annual leave to attend said “I had a really enjoyable day in Preston at the Gujarat Hindu Society and Community Centre in a workshop organised by the ARC NWC EPHC theme with Made by Mortals that creates immersive (stuff that gets you right involved in the action) podcasts, films and musical theatre shows in collaboration with world-class professional artists, health and social care organisations and a wonderful mix of community participants.
The session gave understanding to the ethos of the work and how they create work in coproduction to ethically use lived experience without requiring individual testimony that can retraumatise people and instead cocreate work that can deliver the impact that research reports so often lack.
We talked about theory of change using hidden episodes to understand lived experience in an ethical way to break down barriers and truly change services for the better.
Looking forward to ARC doing further exciting work with Made by Mortals in the months to come. Hopefully we can have them come talk to our public advisor forum about their work as I’m sure our public advisers will be thrilled to work in this way.”
You can find out more about Made by Mortals on their website or follow them on Twitter.
