Try to see it my way: exploring the co-design of visual presentations of well-being through a workshop process

Aims: A 10-month project funded by the NewMind network sought to develop the specification of a visualisation toolbox that could be applied on digital platforms (web- or app- based) to support adults with lived experience of mental health difficulties to present and track their personal well-being in an multi-media format.Methods: A participant co-design methodology, Double Diamond from the DesignCouncil (Great Britain),was used consisting of 4 phases: Discover - a set of literature and app searches of well-being and health visualisation material; Define – an initial workshop with participants with lived experience of mental health problems to discuss well-being and visualisation techniques and to share personal visualisations; Develop – a second workshop to add detail to personal visualisations e.g., forms of media to be employed, degree of control over sharing. Deliver – to disseminate the learning from the exercise. Results: Two design workshops were held in December 2017 and April 2018 with 13 and 12 experts-by-experience involved respectively, including 2 peer researchers (co-authors) and 2 individual-carer dyads in each workshop, with over 50% of those being present in both workshops. Twenty detailed visualisations were produced, the majority focussing on highly personal and detailed presentations of well-being.Discussion: Whilst participants concurred on a range of typical dimensions of well-being, the individual visualisations generated were in contrast to the techniques currently employed by existing digital well-being apps and there was a great diversity in preference for different visualisation types. Participants considered personal visualisations to be useful as self-administered interventions or as a step towards seeking help, as well as being tools for self-appraisal.Conclusions: The results suggest that an authoring approach using existing apps may provide the high degree of flexibility required. Training on such tools, delivered via a module on a recovery college course, could be offered

Emerging perspectives from the Hearing Voices Movement: implications for research and practice

The international Hearing Voices Movement (HVM) is a prominent mental health service-user/survivor movement that promotes the needs and perspectives of experts by experience in the phenomenon of hearing voices (auditory verbal hallucinations). The main tenet of the HVM is the notion that hearing voices is a meaningful human experience, and in this article, we discuss the historical growth and influence of the HVM before considering the implications of its values for research and practice in relation to voice-hearing. Among other recommendations, we suggest that the involvement of voice-hearers in research and a greater use of narrative and qualitative approaches are essential. Challenges for implementing user-led research are identified, and avenues for future developments are discussed