Practising Mindful Practice
Practising Mindful Practice is a new podcast resource for heritage professionals, funded by The Baring Foundation.
About the podcast
Practising Mindful Practice supports heritage professionals to better understand the mental health and addiction recovery sector. It also encourages collaboration so that the heritage and health sectors can work together to develop creative programmes that best serve the needs of patients and clients.
Occupational therapists, psychotherapists, mental health specialists, museum and gallery professionals, freelance artists, academics and those with lived experience of addiction recovery are among those sharing knowledge and expertise in interviews across the podcast series.
Clara Shield, Assistant Outreach Officer and Wellbeing Programme Lead at Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums, said:
"We hope that heritage professionals will find the Practising Mindful Practice podcast useful, meaningful and thought-provoking. We've created it to support both those who are new to mental health and addiction recovery work, and those who have already started their journey and want to develop it further.
"Soon each podcast episode will have a downloadable crib sheet covering the key areas discussed, along with a glossary of terms and list of references to related websites, articles, publications and organisations."
Episode 1 - Organisational values & co designing with agenda alignment
Transcript - Practising Mindful Practice - Episode 1 (Word, 26 KB)
Top five takeaways
- Have courageous conversations
- Ensure the voice of lived experience is part of the design of programmes
- Embrace a learning culture
- Keep the focus of the work to the benefits for the participants
- Adopt a Memorandum of Understanding to underpin the work.
Episode 2 - Collections connections to clinical and care outcomes
Transcript - Practising Mindful Practice - Episode 2 (Word, 27 KB)
Top five takeaways
- Design the programmes with the participants/service users
- Be flexible and open to change in your plans
- Share outcomes toolkits and be open to contributions from partners
- Consider the accessibility of your collections (objects and visits to venues)
- Encourage recording of observations from health care staff to support your evaluations.
Episode 3 - Understanding clinical environments
Transcript - Pratising Mindful Practice - Episode 3 (Word, 24 KB)
Top five takeaways
- Have the right people in the job role
- Share information on session plans to help inform risk assessments
- Visit the clinical environment prior to programmes commencing
- Encourage open dialogue with partners to alleviate anxiety
- Have appropriate supervision and support in place, relevant to the environment.
Episode 4 - Staff Wellbeing
Transcript - Practising Mindful Practice - Episode 4 (Word, 27 KB)
Top five takeaways
- Group reflective practice
- Check-ins with colleagues (beginning of session), debriefs with colleagues (end of session)
- Supervision with line manager
- Supervision with clinical staff
- Protected personal ‘buffer’ time for reflection.
Episode 5 - Creative interventions – demonstrating impact
Transcript - Practising Mindful Practice - Episode 5 (Word, 27 KB)
Top five takeaways
- Explore the most significant change method
- Capture the experience and value for the participants in their own words
- Ensure you are collecting data that is relevant
- Consider how you can share data appropriately between different organisations
- Explore the research already ‘out there’ to support the work you want to undertake.
Episode 6 - Legacies
Transcript - Practising Mindful Practice - Episode 6 (Word, 28 KB)
Top five takeaways
- Plan exit strategy at planning stage of project not at end
- Provide ways for the participants to capture their own experiences e.g. Learning Journals
- Programme visits to venues as part of the project to encourage independent visits following the end of the programme
- Have signposting materials to sustain recovery in the community
- Capture the story in creative ways.
About the episode artworks
As part of the Practising Mindful Practice project, we commissioned North Tyneside Art Studio (NTAS) to create six pieces of artwork, one for each of the podcast episodes.
NTAS is the only specialist art for mental health service in North Tyneside, with over 30 years' experience in the field. Based in a dedicated studio space in North Shields, it provides a safe, supportive environment where people can discover how creativity can support their mental health and personal recovery.
With thanks to The Baring Foundation
This work has been made possible through funding from The Baring Foundation.
Baring is an independent foundation which protects and advances human rights and promotes inclusion. It believe in the role of a strong, independent civil society nationally and internationally. It uses its resources to enable civil society to work with people experiencing discrimination and disadvantage and to act strategically to tackle the root causes of injustice and inequality.
