Identity Matters
This is the second in this series of reflective webinars on ‘Putting Identity in the Heart of Practice.
In this webinar, presented by our resident Artist, Trevor Appleson, we learnt how photography can be used as a third lens to explore and understand a resident's identity and the things that matter to them. As Martin Hampton (Integrated Care Social Worker) explained, ‘Reflecting on Trevor’s photographs I think that my clients’ identity is never a neutral or objective phenomena; she/he is never ‘Just a client’. Their identity is about what matters to them, it is culture, a matter of position of the place from which they can speak, to whom and for what purpose'.
We also heard from Arlene Jones (Children's Social worker) and Rachael Bond (Commission Manager) who shared their reflections on their collaborations with Trevor, including supporting residents with 'hoarding behaviours' to successfully 'redistribute their treasures' and improve outcomes for residents with Autism, respectively.
An anonymous poll was carried out to gain views on how people found the webinar, this showed that:
- 96% of respondents rated the webinar between excellent- good
- 88% of respondents felt it was relevant to their work
- 78% of respondents said they would either start or continue to have conversations about identity as a result of these webinars
This is really encouraging as our agenda to focus on identity is a priority of the ASC equalities project plan. As you know the plan seeks to tackle and reduce the structural inequalities faced by staff and residents, and help deliver on the Supporting People Connecting Communities ambition to address structural inequalities by improving our understanding of the people we work with and how aspects of people’s identities (intersectionality) can impact their experiences.
So, the poll results really do reinforce our message that Identity Matters!