A team of students and staff are helping to shape ideas around creativity and its role in adult social care.

The University’s  ‘Community21’ design research team led by School of Architecture and Design academic Nick Gant is helping the county council to consider the role of creativity in supporting well-being of both adults in social care and that of staff within the service.

This research consultancy project looks at how design and making can support diverse communities in reshaping their environment for well-being in different social contexts.

The project at Grangemead care home facility includes building a garden shed which is the creative base to co-design and co-produce a new garden environment for the home. The process is helping to address issues and opportunities from bereavement, memory and reminiscence and well-being to recycling, sustainability and encouraging wildlife. The project is also considering how to encourage different and positive opportunities for ‘well-being-at-work’ for care workers in a time of crisis in the sector.

Graduates have been employed as part of the process and students from the University are to be involved through the new academic year. It is hoped the garden will be a flagship project that demonstrates the many values created through collaboration.

The garden will open in Spring 2019.

For more information on Community 21