Beyond the Stigma: Evaluation report

Research report


Worthington, N. 2024. Beyond the Stigma: Evaluation report. Canterbury Christ Church University.
AuthorsWorthington, N.
TypeResearch report
ContributorsGrainger, C.
Abstract

Background: This evaluation report was written for the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (ROH), Birmingham, UK. It details research examining the impact of ROH's Beyond the Stigma project (BTS), an exhibition of stories about staff with physical and hidden impairments.

Objective: The research aimed to uncover BTS's long-term impact on participants who publicly shared lived experiences of disability in their hospital workplace, and how arts-based interventions can effectively identify and promote nuanced disability understandings and the wellbeing of disabled people working in healthcare.

Methods: Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) interviews were conducted with six hospital staff. Transcripts were analyzed in depth.

Results: Three superordinate themes emerged from the data, Process of Hesitancy and Comfort, Perceptions of Impact and Contribution, and Journeying with Disability Understandings. These captured personal narratives of how it felt to disclose impairment and perceptions of the project’s impact. Long-term benefits of taking part in BTS were identified as increased self-confidence, openness, self-acceptance, and empowerment. Shifts in participants’ personal disability views pointed to improved quality of life inside and outside the workplace through new awareness of diverse and shared experiences, new ease with disability definitions, language, self-identity, and community participation.

Conclusion: This evaluative research exposed levels of risk, resilience, and compromise associated with sharing personal experiences of disability, and how these can be managed effectively in the workplace. BTS offers a model for health promotion and community participation across disabled and non-disabled communities that can be repeated and adapted to support employment strategies, shift understandings, and promote notions of disability gain and disability pride across healthcare settings.

KeywordsDisability; Arts & Health; Healthcare; Employment; Recruitment; Inclusion; Diversity; Equality; Arts-based methods; Phenomenology; Interpretative phenomenological analysis; Wellbeing; Storytelling; Impairment; Long-term health conditions; Mental health; Identity; Lived experience; Community; Resilience; Health promotion
Year2024
PublisherCanterbury Christ Church University
Related URLhttps://roh.nhs.uk/beyond-the-stigma/beyondstigma
Output statusUnpublished
File
License
All rights reserved
File Access Level
Open
Publication dates
PrintApr 2024
Publication process dates
Deposited09 Sep 2024
FunderThe Royal Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
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