The Role of Digital Stories in Supporting User Involvement and Participation

1. The Role of Digital Stories in Supporting User Involvement and Participation Quality Services ~ User Views SSRG Event 17th March 2008 Karen Barrie, ISD

2. Overview • What are digital stories? • Using digital stories in health and social care • Sharing the digital storytelling approach • Viewing a digital story

3. What are ‘digital stories’? • Short, powerful, presentations that combine voice, still images and music into a story between 2 and 5minutes in length • Told in the storyteller’s own words and voice • The storyteller may be helped to shape the story, but ultimately decides what to say • And retains editorial control

4. Using digital stories in health and social care • The ‘digital story’ is not an attempt to describe what happens in care settings most of the time • Rather, it allows the voices of ‘ordinary’ service users and carers to be heard • Providing a gentle yet powerfulreminder of what health and social care is all about • As a process, ‘digital storytelling’ supports active and meaningful participation • And may finding useful applications within user and carer consultation & engagement, education & training, quality assurance, service improvement efforts, informing national debate etc.

5. Using digital stories in health and social care Adapted from the CHD Collaborative ~ Discovery Interviews 2005

6. Using digital stories in health and social care • Good use has been made of digital stories within health care in England, notably through the Patient Voices programme http://www.patientvoices.org.uk • Successful, but limited application in Scotland e.g. NHS Lanarkshire stroke service http://www.strokestories.scot.nhs.uk • The storytelling approach has served as a somewhat ad hoc means of uncovering the experiences of people who use care service and their carers • Identified an opportunity to try to situate digital storytelling within the wider service improvement and quality of care agenda • Involvement of JIT = ideal means of doing so

7. The ‘Whose Care, Whose Lives’ Story Collection • 18 stories developed with storytellers living in different care settings in Lanarkshire, Moray and Orkney • A highly enjoyable experience • Providing powerful statements that highlight the impact care services have on the quality of life for the vulnerable • Reinforcing the UDSET outcomes • (Re-)setting in the context of individual lives

8. The ‘Whose Care, Whose Lives’ Story Collection • Collection made widely available on DVD • Finding applications in various national and local contexts • Causing service providers and decision makers to take a moment to reflect • And hopefully to think creatively about how to improve practices, services, outcomes…. . and ultimately people’s lives

9. Other Story Collections • Work is currently underway to build on the ‘Whose Care, Whose Lives’ stories • UDSET ~ Usage Experiences • Intermediate Care • Housing • Telecare • In moving forward, need to think very carefully about how digital stories might be used........... misused, or abused

10. Sharing the digital storytelling approach • A short project ‘Digital Storytelling In Health and Social Care’ is supporting the application of the approach in 3 care locations to: • Determine the safeguards, teaching methods, facilitation skills and technologies needed to embed the making and effective use of digital stories in local care communities • Inform development of a toolkit to support implementation in different contexts • Assess the value that digital storytelling adds to the service improvement and quality of care agenda

11. Sharing the digital storytelling approach • Initial 3-day training workshop held in November 2007 • Participants preparing for local use within: • Staff awareness raising and training programmes • Service evaluation and review • Sharing employment experiences of adults with physical disabilities / learning difficulties • Follow-up local training and storytelling workshops planned throughout March and April • Evaluation of contribution of digital storytelling to service improvement built in

12. Viewing a digital story……