Free Event at the Royal College of Nursing - 22 June

Mobilising scepticism for positive healthcare change: Findings from a Brixton case study

This past year, we've been working with the community research organisation Centric on a project on community health, scepticism, and activism. Join us for a free, informal, collaborative workshop at the Royal College of Nursing to explore our findings.

Extrapolating from the oral history interviews conducted by Centric, project researchers will discuss the different forms of activism that exist in this community (from herbal remedies to massage, and from entrepreneurialism to healthcare reform) but also the more essential questions these pose for how we do and think about the care of health more broadly.

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What do these stories and experiences tell us about how mainstream healthcare does and does not work?

What potential ideas for reform do they contain?

We invite participants to think with us about the problem we confront in caring for health now and the solutions we might – as a group – conjure up to produce a system of healthcare that reflects, represents and works for us all.

Draft Programme

13.00-13.10 Welcome and Introductions (Anne Marie Rafferty)

13.10-13.30 Background: Healthy Scepticism and Community Activism (Caitjan Gainty & Agnes Arnold-Forster)

Session 1. Findings and their implications

13.30-13.45 Mini-presentations from Centric & others, laying out research findings and highlighting discussions thus far (featuring Centric staff: Elaine Brown, Paul Addae and Tracey Kirungi)

13.45-14.00 Commentary and Response

14.00-14.30 Break-out discussions—integrating community views and views from those working within medical structures.

14.30-15.00 General discussion and sum-up

15.00-15.15 Break (Coffee, Tea, Snacks - provided)

Session 2. What next?

15.15-15:30 Recap/response to session 1 to set the stage for session 2

15:30-16.00 Roundtable discussion. Now we’ve identified the problems, how might we mobilise scepticism to bring about positive healthcare change? What are some of the solutions that might be implemented on an individual, institutional, community, city, or national level? Is there anything that healthcare professionals can take away and do differently at their place of work tomorrow? Is there anything that healthcare institutions might do differently? What role, if any, do politicians and policymakers have in this space?

16.00-16.30 Large group discussion, feeding off of the various discussion points at roundtables.

16.30-17.00 Wrap up the day/Final comments etc (Caitjan Gainty)

17.00-17.30 Reception