Creative exploring care home futures

Background

‘Creatively exploring care homes futures’ involved a collaboration with the University of the West of Scotland and Scottish Care to explore the image and vision of care homes in the near future. Involving the perspectives of care home providers, staff and residents, this project aimed to ensure that exploration of the future and opportunities to innovate were informed by lived experience. The project brought together the strengths of a design-led approach and Appreciative Inquiry to explore and illustrate dynamic ways of engaging with the breadth of priorities within care homes.

Project aim

Combining the expertise of The Innovation School and the LIFE programme at UWS, the project aimed to create a safe space for participants to share insights and creatively explore care homes in the future, supported by design tools and methods. The research focussed on three interlinked areas:

• Care home as community
• Care home experience of the workforce
• Care home experience of residents and families

Methodology

The approach employed a range of methods in order to creatively engage participants in the exploration. Each method and form of engagement was designed based on the participant group and context. The emergent nature of the approach began with a project scoping session among the collaborators to create a shared understanding of the context and narrow the focus of the project. The process was iterative in that each activity informed the next.

Source: Care Home Futures — Future Health and Wellbeing