Partnering Curiosity with Creative Connections Through the Change Minds Project : An Integrated Commununity Case Study

Abstract

Providing sustainable mental health and wellbeing interventions for those living with serious mental illness remains an area of research interest and therapeutic improvement priorities globally. Any search for progressive mental health treatments often seeks to move away from traditional and historical approaches in search of novel innovations. The Change Minds project embraces the past as a significant data source for enabling those living with mental health issues to find creative connections, exploring how to think differently about what can be learned from the past that promotes living well with a mental health diagnosis. Change Minds is delivered in a unique tripartite organisational partnership approach, bringing together the National Archive Record Office, with local mental health service providers, linked to the original charity host, The Restoration Trust. For three years Change Minds has brought together small social groups of people living with mental health issues, supported by their mental health services, and introduced them to the process of searching local archive asylum records. The Change Minds project facilitates participants through researching asylum case records, identifying and following aspects of interest and curiosity about the daily lives of past asylum personnel. The project ends with participants seeking to represent their own research insights through a creative output or artefact of choice. Old and new social connections, creative expression and peer support have been tried and tested across several sites in England, to produce significant well-being outcomes. The project offers tangible evidence of personal growth, confidence and connection, in contrast to participants prior experiences of living with a serious mental illness such as consequences of social isolation and long-term internal turmoil, as a novel case study of integrated community care provision.