Creating Change: A collaborative action inquiry approach for integrating creativity and community assets into ICS responses to Health Disparities
Project Summary
In a context where health systems are under increasing strain and the social drivers of health disparities are increasingly being recognised, there is a growing acknowledgement of the value of non-medical responses such as creative, physical and nature-based activities in supporting health and wellbeing. Evidence reveals that one third of GP appointments are for issues that are not medical and many tangible health problems arise as a result of social drivers (for example, loneliness, anxieties around finances or housing, depression about body image or being unemployed). The potential for developing the wider use of creative and community-based approaches to address health disparities is therefore substantial. West Yorkshire is leading the way in developing the use of non-medical interventions to promote health and well-being.
However, creative and community providers rely on short term funding and are not fully integrated into the health care system with the result that provision can be ad hoc and unsustainable. This project will build on leading edge developments across West Yorkshire in progressing the creative health agenda by bringing together key stakeholders (health trusts, local authorities, creative/cultural practitioners, community providers and people with lived experience) to innovate thinking in order to better integrate creative and community-based responses into health improvement strategies and systems to address health disparities.
The project utilises a co-productive approach centred around the use of community-based action research and systemic inquiry as participative processes of learning for change. This involves stakeholders learning in action in response to the overarching research question driving this project:
What would it mean to redesign local health systems with stakeholders in response to health disparities in ways that integrates and realises the value of community assets?
Innovation and inquiry involved place based inquiries in each of the five local authority areas incorporating workshops, interviews, deep dive investigation of a selection of organisations and networks, secondary data analysis and co-inquiry with people with lived experience. The project process builds on stories from people with lived experience to provide a deeper understanding of the social drivers and complexities of health problems in communities, as well as learning from the challenges and achievements of partners in practice, to envision new possibilities for change. Place-based action inquiries were complemented by three workshops involving people with lived experience and stakeholders from different sectors from across west Yorkshire culminating in a final workshop to reflect on learning and develop priorities for action moving forward. These were used to inform a bid for AHRC Phase 3 funding. The whole process was underpinned by a partner mapping exercise and rapid review of creative health approaches and models of partnership development.
This project has attracted investment from University of Huddersfield in the development of a Creative Health Innovation Hub to support learning, development and training as well as co-funding and contributions in kind from partners across West Yorkshire.
For further information about this project please contact Barry Percy-Smith (B.Percy-Smith@hud.ac.uk), or Rowan Bailey (R.Bailey@hud.ac.uk ).
