A team at Kent’s Tizard Centre has begun working on a collaborative research project – called Believe in Us – which aims to make real and lasting changes to health services in Greenwich for people with learning disabilities and autistic people.
Believe in Us is a two-year project which launched in April. It springs from a Tizard Centre partnership established in November 2020 with creative arts company Heart n Soul. Additional partners include Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust, Royal Borough of Greenwich, Helen Hamlyn Centre for Inclusive Design and University of the Arts London (UAL) Creative Computing Institute.
Believe in Us puts people with learning disabilities and autistic people in control of redesigning health services. The project aims to challenge why and how things are done in the NHS at Greenwich, and to improve the culture and quality of relationships at the heart of health care services. Director of the Tizard Centre, Professor Chrissie Rogers, along with colleagues Dr Damian Milton and Beckie Whelton are leading on the research and evaluation arm of the project.
Over the summer, a group of people with learning disabilities and autistic people from Heart n Soul have been meeting with service users from Greenwich. As well as building relationships, the groups have been engaging in creative activities around wellbeing and healthcare. This includes creating their ‘ideal’ health professionals, designing a health care manifesto and considering experiences such as hospital appointments.
The Tizard Centre
The Tizard Centre is a leading UK academic centre, based at the School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research, working in autism, learning disability and community care.