A team from the Discovery Research Platform were delighted to take part in the South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust’s (SWYFT) Research and Development Conference earlier this week. The Trust, which provides community, mental health and learning disability services to the people of Barnsley, Calderdale, Kirklees and Wakefield, are a key strategic partner of the Platform. Over the past few years, they have successfully been embedding research at every level of the Trust and supporting creative engagement of communities in research. This year’s conference on 3 June 2025 was focused on ‘Creativity in Research: Creative approaches in research methodology, practice and engagement‘.
Our researchers were invited to present in the plenary session about how creativity and creative approaches run through our Platform. Nick Barley (Professor in Practice, Institute for Medical Humanities) talked about the power of creativity and ‘Imagining Better’, and our work with the Edinburgh International Book Festival on the Writers and Readers’ Inner Voices project as part of Hearing the Voice (2012–2022). He then went on to discuss ‘The Hope Collective’ his current work with the Trust on poetry and how it can help us express our emotions and improve our mental health. The project invited community members to write and submit poems on themes of hope, joy, light or meaning.
Fiona Johnstone (Lead for The Visual and Material Lab) spoke about how creativity and creative methods run throughout our Platform activities and approaches to deepen engagement with people with lived experience, create meaningful connections, and develop new insights about health and wellbeing. She also discussed her research on artist-led research projects in clinical settings and how artists often excel at leading large complex research projects with applied insights. Laura Mazzoli Smith (Lead for The Narrative Practices Lab) gave a presentation on digital storytelling and Enduring Voices – a freely accessible, searchable and enduring repository for the Patient Voices collection of digital health stories that we are developing with Tony Sumner and Pip Hardy. Tony and Pip have supported hundreds of people living with complex health conditions, family members and health professionals to develop their stories through their story circle workshops. See their website for more information.
Next Georgia Punton, Mary Robson and Arya Ray led an interactive workshop on reimagining the imagination through ReaderBank . By taking part in our Imagination Quiz, the participants explored what kind of readers they were, and what different imagination types can mean for therapeutic methods.
It was fantastic to hear about other inspiring creative health projects in West Yorkshire and exciting plans for mental health research across the SWYPFT area. A day of great conversations, new connections made and exciting research opportunities. Thank you to the South West Yorkshire NHS Trust team – Mark Brooks (Chief Executive), Dr Subha Thiyagesh (Chief Medical Officer), Dr Wajid Khan (Research and Development Manager), Dr Luise Marino (Associate Director Research), Nicola Mirfin (Senior clinical research engagement officer) and all the conference staff who made this such a great event!
