Taking part in the ‘Good Life’ research
A participant in the research for A Good Life: Exploring what matters to people with multiple and complex needs blogs here anonymously about her experience in taking part in the ‘creative methods’ research.
Around a year ago, Revolving Doors arranged some creative workshops on what would be a good life for service users. Around ten of us took part in the first session. We spent the day creating a collage each, entitled “what makes a good life”. The group facilitators provided a mixture of magazines and other art materials and explained the basics of the project.
We spent the first few hours just making the collages. It was quite daunting at first staring at a blank bit of paper with a huge choice of what to put on it. Once we got started it felt really relaxed and people really enjoyed being creative. The facilitators explained we were not being judged on our art skills. People were chatting away about the pictures, why they liked them and what they meant to them.
It was quite hard to think of positive things about life more than the usual bad things, as a lot of us have had bad experiences with services and with life in general. Using pictures definitely made it easier to talk about certain issues rather than filling out questionnaires or talking in groups – which is usually how we are asked to talk about services. It was nice that you didn’t have to be talented as a lot of people don’t feel confident in art skills.
After a couple of hours of making the collages amongst ourselves we took a break. We then came back to present our work to the group about what our collage meant, why we picked certain images and what feelings these images brought up. Some people found this bit of the day very upsetting and would have preferred to have been given the option to feedback one to one as there was some very personal stuff – it was suggested that maybe next time this should be an option.* Although some people really enjoyed sharing the meanings of their collages.
What was really interesting about the day was that when people were asked about what would be a good life to them, no-one came up with diamonds and yachts and other unrealistic stuff. It was basic things like secure and safe accommodation, being healthy and not in pain, freedom, being with kids and families, picnics in the park in the sunshine, having a laugh with friends and not being isolated, and just having enough money to provide food and be warm and safe at home.
People in power spend a lot of time telling us what we should be aiming for in life, but maybe if they asked us they might find that our goals and priorities are not that unreasonable.
*This was implemented following this feedback. Participants in workshops two and three worked on collages together but then discussed them privately with researchers.
Download the report here.
