Wired in - a Knowledge is Power case study of Moray Wellbeing Hub

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This Knowledge is Power case study from Moray Wellbeing Hub demonstrates how community-led action research can be a great tool in empowering people to challenge stigma and to encourage better ways of thinking and talking about issues - in this case mental wellbeing.

Background and introduction

Our project focused on understanding the concept of neurodiversity and in particular the potential to harness experiences of living with a non-neurotypical brain as a resource to create positive community change in Moray. Our aim was to empower people to tackle stigma and to stimulate peer-support in Moray.

How the project developed

Our Action Group

Led by a group of peers working in formal roles with Moray Wellbeing Hub (MWH), we created a lived experience action group of people with neurodivergent brains.  

We held monthly meetings and actively engaged with members between meetings through our Slack channel to feed discussion and outputs.

We then collected the voice of lived experience around neurodiversity, using appreciative enquiry approach to focus on strengths. This resulted in meaningful conversation around language, a strength-based leaflet, and a neurodiversity themed pathway for support.

Click to view the neurodiversity leaflet in full

The group agreement and terms of reference framed the purpose and actions for the group well, this created clarity and structure, which is specifically useful and appreciated by neurodivergent people.

By using a dedicated group slack channel, we were able to discuss and input on current actions. And people could therefore have as much and direct input into the actions as they wanted, without it being all clustered in the one hour meeting we had every month. This made the process very productive and member led.

The slack channel generated some excellent, genuine, respectful and thoughtful discussion.

Events

Participants at Moray Wellbeing Hub event

We delivered two accessible events aiming to start a conversation which were well attended, involving over 70 people. This enabled us to form our campaign around neurodiversity and to discuss and share this with people with lived experience and stakeholders within the wider Moray community.

Getting people together to share experiences and views, and create a workable plan based on lived experience. This project also made us mindful of accessibility of our events to a neurodivergent audience, despite challenges around Covid.

Having slides with images to anticipate on different learning styles and be thought provoking.

Having different ways of participating using post-its and chat for digital attendance, relieves pressures of having to speak up.

“A really empowering session with great discussions.” (Event participant)

“It’s been excellent and very thought provoking; good mix of small group discussion and main group.” (Event participant)

The first event allowed us to gather views of people within the neurodivergent community of Moray and helped us shape how using the concept of neurodiversity could make a positive impact on stigma around neurodiverse conditions. It enabled us to create our campaign clip (see video above-right) to encourage positive perception change in the wider Moray community.

‘We are all wired differently’ t-shirt

The second event led us to think about different approaches to incorporate and explore neurodiversity and provide more opportunity for peer support. This eventually led to events around strands of identity, development of “we are all wired differently” shirts and a neurodiversity walk.

“Learning I was neurodivergent has made me accept my quirks and I now feel I belong.” (Event participant)

At our wellbeing conversation stations a lot of people could relate to the topic as most people at least knew of someone in their environment that is neurodivergent. They also know how it can impact someone and understand why it’s an important topic to talk about. People could also relate to the colourful visual we created that emphasizes that we are all wired differently.

Adapting to challenges

During the Covid pandemic we have been able to adapt plans and accessibility of our events, both to meet the aims of the research as well as to ensure guidance for safety was followed. This included moving conversation café events, traditionally in local halls, to a new model of ‘Conversation Stations’.

This saw both a central street stall and volunteers walking in communities to connect with people instead. Creativity was also a key focus both in the campaign video and in linking up with another project exploring identity. This resulted in new t-shirts being designed that community members could wear to show support to the campaign.

Evaluating our work

Using the ‘CHIME’ criteria, we were able to demonstrate several important wellbeing outcomes for the participants.

Video explaining CHIME - Connectedness Hope Identity Meaning and Empowerment

Connection - Increased peer-to-peer support and delivery

The action group for the project recruited group members initially from within Moray Wellbeing Hub’s Champion network. We then opened the group for people with lived experience in the community or their families, gaining 4 new members, bringing the total to 10 group members of people with neurodiverse lived experience to share.

Hope and optimism

By taking part in the action group, members had the opportunity to actively input into the course of our neurodiversity campaign.

“I’ve waited so long for something like this to happen, so I’m really eager to be involved. There needs to be much more attention around the strengths of neurodivergent people.” (Project contributor)

Identity – an empowered neurodiverse community of Moray. 

As a strength-based action group, we got to focus and celebrate neurodiverse strengths and share how we wanted to manage perception of neurodiverse identities. 

“I think of neurodiversity as a ‘culture’ - the way you think is different - like being from a different culture, it’s making people understand you’re different. “  (Project contributor)

Meaning – an increase a positive perception of neurodiversity: 

We were able to stimulate a positive shift in how neurodiversity is perceived and move away from so much attention only about the challenges around neurodiversity,

“Neurodiversity makes people unique. Their skills and superpowers are wonderful!”  (Project contributor)

Empowerment – an increase in individuals reached by Moray Wellbeing Hub support, together with information to increase awareness around neurodiversity

We reached over 100 people during our Wellbeing Conversation Stations over the summer and our campaign clip on Youtube received over 300 views.

Impact

Overall, this has culminated in a successful community-led action research project with actions ongoing, continuing to make positive change in Moray beyond its funding. Our campaign to raise awareness resulted in partners being connected with and influenced.  With a new leaflet and online tool, as well as new empowered community members, MWH feels confident that neurodiversity will remain a core aspect of their awareness work, and in the minds of many other partners in their work.

More information

Moray Wellbeing Hub’s neurodiversity video, developed as part of their Knowledge is Power research.