Shift Happens
Down The Rabbit Hole and other creative adventures
in Mersey Care NHS Trust
Dr Mandy Chivers, Assistant Chief Executive
Becoming a Healthy Museum May 2012
Alice in Wonderland Magic Lantern Slides 1900 - 1925
© University of Exeter
Thinking Differently
From this …
to this…
The inspiration
“Farmers don’t grow crops they create the
conditions in which crops can grow”
Gareth Morgan
“I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order
that I may learn how to do it”
Pablo Picasso
Translating what I had learnt in clinical system
change across an organisational setting ………
Mersey Care NHS Trust
Mersey Care
Get Into
Reading
Post of reader in residence, occupied by Mary and Katie from The Reader
Organisation since September 2007
Reading groups have developed in a broad range of settings across the
Trust: currently 40 groups
Mersey Care staff have received training to co-facilitate and then take
over facilitation of groups
The success of the reading groups led this year to Mersey Care taking
part in a Liverpool Literary Festival
Making Sense’, ‘Making More
Sense’ and ‘Unfolding‘’
An early arts-based programme
employing professional artists
(TAG) to work with those who
use the Brain Injuries Service
and later in collaboration with
The Conservation Centre and
Sudley House. A springboard to
further creative learning
programmes in the museums
spaces including Portmandieu.
Musician in
Residence
Members of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra play in
inpatient settings
Service user visits to the Philharmonic Hall supported by staff and
musicians in residence
Staff and service users offered discount to assist access to
concert performances
Acute psychiatric units
Low Secure Unit
Opening
Doors
Using the gallery as a resource to work creatively with service
users
• at the gallery
•
in inpatient settings
•
acute psychiatric units
•
Low Secure Unit
•
early interventions service
• Alice
Chapter and Verse
Festival
A literary festival that takes place each year in Liverpool, organised
by The Bluecoat, an arts centre
Mersey Care worked with The Bluecoat and The Reader to host
four author-led events and to promote interest and participation
throughout the Trust
Staff and patients at Ashworth Hospital organised a week of special
literary and cultural events as part of the festival, culminating
in a reading by author, Brian Keenan
Mersey Care
Dances
A collaboration between the Trust and Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts
Groups for inpatients facilitated by a professional dancer and supported
therapeutically by occupational therapists
A film of the project provides persuasive evidence of the value of the
activity as experienced by the service users, the dancer and the therapeutic
staff
‘Headsound’
A programme of projects using new media arts; sound, animation, film,
VJ’ing to teach new skills and provide creative opportunities to
people who use Mersey Care Early Intervention Services
The programme takes place in the medialab at FACT, is artist-led and
is supported by a practitioner from the Early Intervention Service
‘Headsound’ have presented two performances at FACT and group
members have supported artists at public events
Headsound
Your Treasure Chest: Your wellbeing treasure chest is a virtual
place to store all the things that help you maintain a sense of
wellbeing. For example, the things you value and give you a
sense of purpose in life.
Take notice in the city…
2020 Taskforce Group
(sub group health & wellbeing board Liverpool)
New Programme
‘Take Notice in the City’ to encourage the
use of mindfulness and support people
understand the take notice strand of the
five ways to wellbeing.
The University of Liverpool, Mersey Care,
Primary Care Trust, Mersey Forest
Blackburne House. National Museums
Liverpool.
‘
And Alice?...
Who in the world am I? Ah,
that’s the great puzzle!
Mersey Care NHS Trust and Tate Liverpool: the Alice in
Wonderland exhibition, a unique collaboration beyond traditional
boundaries.
Our long established partnerships, which recognises the connection
between wellbeing and culture, not only extends our imaginations
but provides a range of opportunities that is making a real
difference to the people in our community.
By stimulating different kinds of conversations and
experiences, we are moving away from the language of
illness towards that of growth, renewal and resilience;
shifting the metaphorical landscape and increasing positive
mental health and wellbeing for us all.
The story of Alice with its enduring themes, popular with both
adults and children, is the perfect vehicle for stimulating a
wider conversation with a bigger audience. The topsy turvy
world that Alice discovers on falling down the rabbit hole can
reflect a life in which we are all challenged to ask “who am
I?”
Thanks for listening!
Mandy.chivers@merseycare.nhs.uk
Alice in Wonderland Magic Lantern Slides 1900 - 1925
© University of Exeter