Shared Power - the training

How to use your lived experience to help in the planning and delivery of 

health and wellbeing services in Powys

Late last year the Health & Wellbeing team at PAVO launched Shared Power - An Introduction, an animated video, as a training tool for individuals who want to use their experiences of health services to help shape future services. The film delves into the different types of power, and how they interact with each other, when service user and carer representatives attend partnership board meetings in Powys.

The film is also aimed at those working in services so that they can avoid some of the barriers to co-production. Co-production means service users and carers work together with health professionals to design future services that work better for everyone. We received some excellent feedback about the film at the time.

Then, just a few weeks ago, came the perfect opportunity to show the film again - at the latest Shared Power face to face training session at our Ddole Road offices in Llandrindod Wells. Delivered by Owen Griffkin (Mental Health Participation Officer) with support from Sue Newham (Health & Wellbeing Engagement Officer), the training aimed to build the confidence, knowledge and skills of participants. Some of those attending were already volunteering as citizen or individual reps, and the training aimed to help them participate effectively in the planning and reviewing of services with public bodies.

Citizen reps volunteer their time, energy and passion to make a difference for others and to the services we receive, and are helping influence change at local, regional and national levels. Some of the participants are citizen reps on the Powys Mental Health Planning & Development Board and the Talk to Me 2 (Suicide & Self-Harm Prevention Forum), whilst others regularly sit on the Powys Regional Partnership Board.

Learning opportunities on the day included:

• How to influence positive changes in health and wellbeing services in Powys.
• Understanding the theories underpinning service user and carer involvement in planning services.
• Gaining practical experience of how partnership boards work with service users and carers in meetings.
• Recognising barriers to participation and how to overcome them.
• Finding out about current opportunities and how to apply for them.
• The opportunity to learn from current service user and carer representatives who sit on Health and Wellbeing Boards about their experiences.
• Learning assertiveness techniques and how to prepare for meetings.
• How to share personal experiences and avoid ‘trigger points’.
  
  

Here are some highlights from the day’s training.

Co-production demystified 

As a citizen rep, you are an equal partner with other professionals in the room. You are an expert by experience. But how do you gain the experience of other people and take their stories to a partnership board?

Owen updated the group about the work of the current mental health representatives, who regularly go out into the community at Meet the Rep events to listen to people’s voices about mental health services.

One of our experienced reps, John, spoke about how important it is to find out what is happening in the rest of Wales and about being aware of current mental health legislation. “Preparation is key! Ask yourself what are some of the key messages you want people to hear.”

John also described some of the resources available to people who want to engage in a co-productive way. The Co-production Network for Wales is a good starting point for finding out more.

And volunteering as a rep is a two-way street! We regularly hear that taking on the role “does improve confidence and help with personal recovery.”

Meetings - with remarkable people

Even introducing yourself at a meeting can be hard when in a room full of strangers, especially when most of them are there in a professional capacity. “A few years ago asking who I am would have been a really distressing question as I thought I was a nobody!”

Participants were introduced to Imposter Syndrome - it might feel daunting to be at a partnership board meeting, but as a rep you probably deserve to be there more than anyone else. “You are the most valuable person here,” someone was told at one meeting.

Everyone in the room is equal. Those working as heads of service for the NHS, or other statutory bodies, may be constrained in their work roles as to exactly what changes they can bring about and when - but they are people too. They may have a mother with dementia, a nephew who needs care, a friend struggling to access services…

As someone pointed out, “Town councils, health boards and councils are slow moving, which can be discouraging, but once they get going in the right direction they are hard to stop!”

Assertiveness is key - and learning the difference between being passive, aggressive and assertive an important skill. As a rep you need to think about being:

• Proactive about what you want to say.
• Confident and engaged.
• Self aware and aware of others.
• Sure your needs are met and that you are heard.
  
  

Hotspots, triggers & flashpoints

Participants spoke about their own triggers. These included being talked over, being told that there was not enough money, “mansplaining" and not being listened to.

One said, “I used to get in a tizz when people didn’t listen and I would storm out crying, but nothing good came from that!”

“You need a strong assertive Chair so that the meeting does not go off track and any problems can be shut down.”

“There will always be quiet people - it’s about managing a meeting to let all voices be heard.”

Dealing with difficult conversations

There was some very interesting group debate amongst the participants about what to do around some specific tricky scenarios which Owen had set up.

“Health staff are there for you. It’s about having the confidence and assertiveness to say, ‘I respect your views but I don’t agree with them.’”

“Ground rules are important to set the tone for the meeting.”

If there is a lack of respect someone suggested saying: “I have respect for your professionalism, so please have respect for my lived experience.”

The mock meeting

To round off the training session, Sue chaired a mock meeting designed to put into practice all the learning from earlier in the day. It turned out to be an extremely interesting and valuable exercise.

All those attending agreed that they had benefitted hugely from Shared Power training, both from the learning and also the opportunity to network with others with a similar role.

And finally…

Would you be interested in joining these citizen reps to take grass-root views and opinions to local board meetings where service providers can find out what is working and what needs to change? For further information about becoming a citizen rep, in the field of mental health or health and social care, just get in touch with us by emailing owen.griffkin@pavo.org.uk or ringing 01597 822191.

The next Shared Power training session will take place on 13 September 2023. 

Do get in touch with Owen if you would like to sign up.

Shared Power training - your chance to make a difference!

Sarah Dale, John Lilley & Rhydian Parry - Mental Health Individual Reps

Do you use health wellbeing services in Powys? Do you ever think about using your lived experience to make a positive difference to the way these services are designed and delivered?

If the answer is yes, but you’re not sure about how to get involved, you could well be interested in a full day of free training around this important area. Our Shared Power training will run on Wednesday 8 February at our Llandrindod Wells office.

We spoke to PAVO’s Participation Officer Owen Griffkin about why Shared Power training is important and the opportunities it may bring to people who attend.

Who is the Shared Power training for?

It’s for anyone who uses health and well being services in Powys and feels like they could use their lived experience to help plan and deliver these services.

What will people who attend get out of the training?

We will be looking at how health and wellbeing services are planned in the county, and the importance of the voice of the people who use these services in helping to make sure the services are run in the best possible way.

People might not know that their experience can be massively important in helping to make health provision better and there have been some big changes over the last few years that have been made because of what issues people have raised.

It can be quite daunting for people to share their stories, which can sometimes be traumatic, so we will look at how to share their experiences. There will be lots of practical exercises, and also we will talk to some of the current service user and carer representatives who sit on the partnership boards responsible for making decisions around health and wellbeing.

What can people do with the knowledge they learn?

A lot of the subjects covered will help with people’s everyday lives. We will have some assertiveness training, and look at how to prepare for meetings and confidence building. We will also look at discussing difficult subjects that can be quite personal to someone.

There will also be a chance to see what current opportunities there are in Powys for people to get involved and make a difference straight away. We try to have as much fun as we can whilst learning, and we will make sure there are lots of practical activities to try out what we are teaching.

Why is this training important?

The Well-being of Future Generations Act in 2015 made it a requirement for Welsh public bodies to involve the people who use, or who care for those who use, health and well-being services. The more people who feel confident in getting involved in this decision making, the better the services will be for anyone who has to use them.

People who have attended previous training sessions have gone on to help make really positive changes in Powys and Nationally as members of health and well-being partnership boards , volunteers for Powys Patients’ Council and leading awareness sessions for social care staff on issues important to them.

There are many more opportunities now to get involved than there were before COVID, and health services are always looking for people with lived experience in lots of different roles.

The people we work with in participation at the moment all say how much it has improved their own well-being because of their increased confidence and self-worth so I can really recommend getting involved and this training will be a great place to start!

If you want to find out more about the Shared Power training you can email owen.griffkin@pavo.org.uk

Or, you can book your place online HERE.

You can read more, and watch a video, about the concept of Shared Power, 

on our recent blog post Shared Power - an Introduction.

Shared Power - an introduction

The Health and Wellbeing Team at Powys Association of Voluntary Organisations is pleased to announce the launch of a new animation film called "Shared Power - An Introduction".

PAVO’s Mental Health Participation Officer, Owen Griffkin, who worked on pulling together the different elements of the film, explains why this was an important subject to make a film about.

For some time now PAVO has delivered training to the service user and carer representatives who sit on the local health and wellbeing partnership boards. These people have a seat on the boards to provide a voice for anyone who uses these services and their input is vital to ensuring a health service that is fit for purpose and effective. We called this training ‘Shared Power’ training and it was designed to give people confidence and knowledge when taking part in high level planning meetings.

When we delivered this training we would often look at the nature of power, and how different types of power interact with each other. One of the theories we discussed was called the POWERCUBE, which expanded on previous theories around the different forms of power. We found that this theory often provoked some interesting discussions, although it could sometimes seem quite daunting when presented in a training session. Therefore, when the opportunity arose to apply for a training grant from the Powys Area Planning Board, we thought that making a short film looking at this theory might be useful in future training courses. 

We also wanted to aim the film at professionals who sit on these boards, so that they could avoid some of the barriers presented by power imbalances that might exclude service users and carers from engaging with co-production opportunities.

We were successful with the funding so we began working with current representatives from the main health and wellbeing partnership boards to get their input on how the film should progress. (These boards include the Mental Health Planning and Development Partnership, the Regional Partnership Board and the Area Planning Board).

We thought an animation might be a good way to highlight the important points, using the opinions and voices of current and past reps, and we hoped to involve the reps in all creative aspects of the film-making process. We worked with Jim Elliott, a Powys-based animator and musician, and I held interviews where possible with the reps so we could use their voices (and likenesses). Unfortunately we were now in the midst of the COVID-19 lockdown so some of the original ideas were hard to do, and the reps weren’t able to be as ‘hands-on’ with the animation as we wanted to, but they still had input into the look and feel of the film.

We had discussed some of the old 1970s Open University graphics as a starting point for the aesthetic of the animation, and decided on a ‘stop-motion’ process to animate the talking head pieces. We also ensured there was a full Welsh version and worked with a local actor from Mid Powys Youth Theatre to provide the Welsh narration.

The initial reaction has been really good, and we plan to use the film in future training sessions as a way to break up the day and provide a break to whoever is leading the training. We hope that other organisations in Wales might want to use the film as well. To help with this we also produced some training materials that can be downloaded from the Powys Mental Health website - Shared Power additional materials.

If you would like to know more about the shared power training please contact mentalhealth@pavo.org.uk

You can view the films in English:

And Welsh:

Sharing power - in the planning and reviewing of services

Just before Christmas 2019 I attended this training event in Llandrindod run by my two Participation Officer colleagues – Owen Griffkin (Mental Health - above) and Andrew Davies (Health & Wellbeing - below).

The aim of the day was to build the confidence, knowledge and skills of participants, some of whom were already volunteering as citizen or individual reps, so that they could effectively participate in the planning and reviewing of services with public bodies. Citizen reps volunteer their time, energy and passion to make a difference for others and to the services we receive, and are helping influence change at local, regional and national levels.

Some of the participants are citizen reps on the Powys Mental Health Planning & Development Board, whilst others regularly sit on the Powys Regional Partnership Board.

Setting ground rules for the day

The key learning of the day was around: 

• Communicating confidently and effectively in meetings.
• Knowing where to access relevant information.
• Better understanding the process and procedures involved.
• Better understanding the public bodies involved.

As people introduced themselves at the start of the day it was really interesting to hear the views of those in contact with services, and others who had been citizen reps for some time already:

“Although organisations are individually very good, together they shall never meet.”

“I like to become a thorn in people’s sides. I enjoy arguing the point although I can accept both ways. A 360 degree view of services is so much better.”

It’s not possible to cover the full extent of the training in a short blog post, so I shall just highlight some of the particularly interesting discussions which took place on the day.

Representing other people

As a citizen rep you are an equal partner with other professionals in the room - you are an expert by experience. But how do you gain the experience of other people and take their stories to a partnership board?

One of the reps spoke about how he represents his own experience as a carer, but also takes stories with him from local carers’ groups that he attends. “You need to be mindful for it not to be just about yourself but to cast the net and make the representation whole. You are in effect a Citizen Rep (representing a group of people with a common interest) but also a Representative Citizen (giving your own opinions)." 

Another participant said: “It’s really hard to put yourself to one side. Sometimes you might be putting a viewpoint forward that you don’t believe in. It’s about delivering it in way that doesn’t put people off, or bore people, or become too personal.” There are some very polarizing issues about the medicalisation of mental health, for example, but it is important for a rep to balance any views s/he may have and give the other side as well.

Understanding other people’s context

Another experienced citizen rep pointed out that certain things cannot change. 

“There is no point banging your head against a brick wall that can only be changed from the top down.”

When things don’t go well – and when they do

Sometimes it can be easy to ask – “why are we here if we don’t have any influence?” It was felt that some meetings were a waste of time, and only “tick box” exercises. “Sometimes the public body will just move on to the next item on the agenda as if we have not spoken. We have been invited to speak, but it sometimes feels just so that they can tick that box.”

Someone representing a local charity described how it took her three years to be heard within one public body. But eventually her persistence paid off, and the organisation was finally able to achieve some funding for a much needed project.

It was, though, also agreed that sometimes staff within an organisation may also be struggling with the slow rate of change – but sometimes the decision making process, and the accountability attached to it, require that change to go through and be agreed by many different committees.

New reps often have very high expectations in the early days, but these need to be managed from the start.

“Don’t promise the earth. It’s the small steps that are important. And publicising the success stories.”

You said, we did

Everyone agreed on the value of prompt feedback from the boards about progress. “Even if that is – we’re still driving this forward but we haven’t got anywhere yet.” Otherwise there is an understandable tendency for people to think – “what’s the point?”

The mock meeting

In the afternoon we were pleased to welcome our former colleague Freda Lacey, now Partnership Manager Mental Health at Powys Teaching Health Board, to chair a mock meeting designed to put into practice all the learning from earlier in the day. It turned out to be an extremely interesting and valuable exercise.

All those attending agreed that they had benefitted hugely from the day, both from the learning and the opportunity also to network with others who had a similar role.

And finally…

Would you be interested in joining these citizen reps to take grass-root views and opinions to local board meetings where service providers can find out what is working and what needs to change? For further information about becoming a citizen rep, in the field of mental health or health and social care, just get in touch with us by emailing mentalhealth@pavo.org.uk or ringing 01597 822191.