Building on project 1 which explored what current health and social care is like for people with ELCs, this project asks people to imagine what better health and social care for people with ELCs would be like in the future.
PROJECT TWO
Imagining Better Futures of Health and Social Care with and for People with Energy Limiting Chronic Illnesses
Funding: This project is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) as part of a series of projects on the future of health and social care, funded to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the NHS.
Project Objectives
- Use arts and creative facilitation to explore suggestions for the improvement of health and social care for people with ELCs from the three groups/communities outlined above
- Produce a series of creative, speculative scenarios of future health and social care for people with Energy Limiting Conditions (including a podcast, comic book, zines, website)
- Use creative outputs to engage current and future health care providers in conversations about opportunities to improve the experience of people of marginalised genders with ELC
- Identify opportunities for health care professionals and policy makers to improve health and social care for people with ELC
Energy Limiting Conditions (ELC), also called Energy Limiting Chronic Illnesses (ELCI), include neurological, musculoskeletal and auto-immune diseases, ME/CFS, fibromyalgia and Long Covid, amongst others. They involve energy impairment and debilitating fatigue that affect every part of people’s lives. For more information, on ELCs, see this webpage by Chronic Illness Inclusion.
Communities and Workshops
This project will provide opportunities to be involved in creative workshops for people with ELCs from the following groups/communities:
- Muslim women
- LGBTQIA+ people
- People of marginalised gender (cis and trans women, trans men, non-binary, intersex and gender nonconforming people)
There will be asynchronous options for people who need to pace their engagement.
The project will involve a series of artist-led workshops for people with ELC in the groups outlined above, including dedicated workshops for Muslim women, and for LGBTQIA+ people. Artists will use a range of creative practices, including zine making, creative writing, photography, among others to ask people to imagine what better health care would be like for themselves as they age, and for people who will be diagnosed with ELC in the future. There will be further workshops with health care professionals about their experiences and opportunities to better support people with ELC.
Outputs from the Project
We produced a policy brief that is available below in PDF and Word formats.
AHRC final Practitioner Policy Brief (PDF)
AHRC final Practitioner Policy Brief (Word).
Creative Outputs
The artists who worked on this project with us created a number of outputs and facilitated workshops with the community.
See creative outputs by Artist:
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