About
the Creativity in Health and Care Workshops programme
The
Health and Care Creativity Workshops Programme is funded
as part of the Arts and Humanities Research Council's (AHRC)
Nature of Creativity research stream, which is co-funded
by the ESRC, DTI and the Arts Council of England.
The
project has been developed in the context of government
directives and modernisation plans that require more creative
working practices within the health and care sector. People
are being encouraged to engage in creative processes as
policy makers, service providers and end users, all of which
has implications for practice. For example, the Department
of Health's Choosing Health (2004) has "full engagement"
as a central tenet and Tomorrow's Doctors (1993) outlines
the importance of the medical humanities in the training
of medical students. Such strategic shifts set the stage
for a more informed application of creativity within the
field of health and care and particularly with the health
and care workforce who are tasked with turning government
directives into reality. The 'Creativity in Health and Care
Workshops' seek to build on existing knowledge in the field
and to develop useful thinking that informs future workforce
development practice and increased uptake of creative ways
of working.
The
workshops aim to engage with questions concerning:
• The value of creativity to society - how might creative
processes be harnessed to improve provision in health and
care? Is creativity of value in its own right? Is creativity
always healthy? How can creativity be evaluated?
• The distinction between creativity and innovation
- what constitutes the creative process? How might the creative
process be employed to encourage innovation? Is it possible
to be creative without being innovative and innovative without
being creative? What are the institutional expectations
of creativity?
• The role of risk in creativity - what conditions
are necessary for creativity to thrive? What may prevent/encourage
people to enter into a creative process? What is the risk
personally and institutionally in a creative encounter?
What are the consequences of creative endeavour?
• Individual/institutional creativity - what are the
personal/institutional imperatives for creativity? How might
creativity affect institutional culture? Is creativity sustainable?
