Thank you very much to all who contributed posts to Week 9. Caring emerged as a strong theme this week, both as caring for people and caring about doing things.
I was particularly interested in Adrienne McDermid-Thomas’s post about art therapy. My academic background is in art, including its history and theory. Although I’ve read quite a lot about the psychology of seeing and the psychoanalysis of artists and their work, I know little about art therapy and was very interested to read something about it. It really made me think.
The title of Phil Jewitt’s Bubble baggage intrigued me. The content of the post would be very useful thinking for all kinds of situations. His first example of bubble baggage included mention of ‘outcome based accountability’ which connected in my mind with the Outcome Learning Groups in Participation Cymru’s reflagging of Making #ActionLearning work! by Jane Lewes. I am curious as to how the Action Learning method could work.
Incidentally, I would like to assure Phil and his colleagues that the secrets of Word formatting relating to bullets and numbering can defeat most of us at times. I ended up creating a new document last year after one much edited by several of us started to number in Greek letters and Roman numerals and couldn’t be unformatted after hours and hours of trying.
This week’s TaysideHealth’s post by Charlene Kenny and Richard Craven highlights the importance of carers – including those who help people with mental illness – and how professionals can learn from them. I hope it does lead to improved experiences for carers.
This linked in with the “Here to help’ approach in David Johnstone’s post. When I first started to have to visit hospitals as a patient, I was very apprehensive and bewildered even about setting foot inside the buildings. The reception staff could seem offhand at best and I was so relieved if a volunteer approached me in a helpful manner when I looked lost and anxious. The idea of helpfulness being embedded in a medical institution at all levels is good.
As I come to the end of this post, I realise that the A, B, C of it are actually Assisting, Believing (in humanity), and Caring – which apply in all areas of life.
Janet
Janet E Davis
Summary of Week 9 posts
Presidential visit by Ross Wigham.
Making #ActionLearning Work! by Jane Lewes Re-blogged from @WalesCVA – Gwneud i #DdysguGweithredol lwyddo! Wedi’i ail-flogio o @WalesCVA – on the Participation Cymru blog.
A journey to the future by Anthea Dickson on the Ayrshirehealth blog.
8 things you need to know about art therapy by Adrienne McDermid-Thomas on the Let’s talk about dementia blog.
Carer engagement and involvement: the value of carers contributing lived experience to professional development by Charlene Kenny and Richard Craven on the TaysideHealth blog.
Bubble baggage by Phil Jewitt.
Here to help by David Johnstone on the dghealth (Dumfries and Galloway Health) blog.
Weekly Blog Club was set up in early January 2012 to encourage people to blog regularly, and especially to encourage those working in and with the public sector, charities and voluntary organisations in the UK to find their own 'voice' through writing.
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