The asset approach has found its way into reports, guidance and research on the future of public health, social care and wellbeing.

The theory assets-based approaches value the capacity, skills, knowledge, connections and potential in individuals and communities Focusing on strengths does not mean ignoring challenges, or spinning struggles into strengths. Practitioners working in this way have to work in collaboration - helping people to do things for themselves. In this way, people can become co-producers of support, not passive consumers of support. A purely deficit based approach, targeted on the needs of the ‘worst’, has demonstrably not reduced the social gradient in health; health inequalities remain stubborn and in most areas the gap is growing. Asset based working is not an alternative to properly funded public services. It challenges how those services are designed and delivered and requires a recasting of the relationship between commissioners, providers, service users and communities. Part of the Scottish Recovery Indicator asks services to consider how they integrate the persons strengths into overall care and treatment. The identification of strengths and abilities can promote hope, an essential part of recovery. At the same time it can promote resilience and prepare people to better deal with periods of difficulty. A focus on strengths can encourage positive relationships where both parties are aware of what they can do, rather than concentrating on deficits. We see the assets mapping process as a way to help people identify assets which are their strengths. ‘Asset thinking’ challenges the predominant framing of health as the prevention of illness and injury, instead, looking at it as the promotion of wellness. It is possible to ‘get ill better’ because good wellbeing tends to mean that people seek help earlier and recover quicker.

What happened? Working in partnership with people who use services, East Dunbartonshire Council social work services, health and voluntary sector partners Two levels: Identifying community assets that are useful for positive mental health and wellbeing Identifying individual assets that are useful positive mental health and wellbeing Proof of concept project So we aimed to do a number of different things in the project. But the main aspiration of the project was do two things really. Work with people in groups to think about whats in the community that might help keep people well Working with individuals so that they can think about the assets they have in their own networks and lives to keep themelves well. We really wanted to see if people would be able to think about using assets in their own networks as well as those in the community map and how they might begin to structure this

What are assets for mental health What are assets for mental health?: anyone or anything in your community that can contribute to the promotion of positive mental health and well-being  So the first slide said we were using assets to promote well-being. I thought I should explain what we identify as being an asset. We were interested to find out about assets useful for mental health – an asset really can be anything that helps people to keep well – it can be traditional services that the local authority or the health service might provide right down to making sure you take some time - we want to map these all out so that other people could understand what they are and how to use them if they needed to. Recruitment

The assets of the community We brought people together in 3 workshops to map out what services, resources and assets exist within the local community. Which was really a process of identifying and organizing community supports that were deemed useful for wellbeing from the eyes of the service user We used the three different workshops to test out different techniques and ways of making things visual, as well as undertaking different exercises. (IMPORTANCE OF PROTOTYPING IDEAS AND SHARING RISK OF CHANGE!) And we learned a lot from going through the process more than once – Workshops lasted 4 hours (with lunch) which was actually quite a long time for people – so for subsequent workshops we worked on this and made sure that there was more moving around and more breaks where people actually got up and moved away from the desk- quite important. But briefly, we used three main techniques for making things visual: (each time building apon the work of the previous group) Using photographic prompts Using 3d objects to help people visualise Showing people other asset maps and asking them what they liked and didn’t like about them and what they would need/want for the one we created for east dunbartonshire We did this so we could better understand what was useful so that if the project was ever to be replicated – people could learn from what happened in the project and could draw on that experience We learned a lot every time we went through the process – and are now able to share the types of approaches that worked best and the conditions that need to be created People (e.g., their skills, talents and knowledge) Places (e.g., meeting places, event venues, theatre space, workshop space) Groups (e.g., women’s groups, student groups) Events (e.g., national holidays, traditional celebrations) Items (e.g., notebooks, clothing) Crucial to note the diverse group of partners that were involved: Social work services Occupational Therapy (community mental health team) The Richmond Fellowship Scotland East Dunbartonshire Association for Mental Health (EDAMH) Ceartas Advocacy Services Carers Link Connections (the Richmond Fellowship Scotland) Mental Health Network (Greater Glasgow and Clyde) The assets of the community

The assets of individuals Another key component of the project was to consider people’s individual attributes and which of their own assets they could use to help improve their own wellbeing. Undertook 10 1-1 individual asset mapping interviews with service users using social work services, connected to the richmond fellowship and EDAMH This was to test out a new approach to having a converstaion about the different types of support that people might need but very focused on what the persons strenfths, resources and capacity was. Really quite powerful for individuals – lots of people had had a tendency to focus on the negatives. Practitioners thought that it was a more creative way of having a conversation and that the visual element was especially useful. Also – each of these elements only means something to the two people who had the conversation – so they retained power over that information. Really keeping them at the heart of it all. ----- Digital stories We’ve since developed an ipad app called WITTY which Fran will tell you more about. The assets of individuals

What did people say? “This is a really good visual way of tapping into what’s around you” “You want your life to be different – you want to do stuff but you don’t know how – let’s work together to see what’s on your doorstep. Let’s look at what’s around you step by step” “I have a lot in my life, I just need to decide how to use it better” Challenges in recruitment - practicalities Previous engagement experiences Stigma Staff engagement and access to individuals Changing local context Nurturing relationship

The story continues… Don’t get lost in theory and jargon This is about people and communities There are examples of assets rich communities and fiery spirits everywhere We know how to do this We want to do it Just do it

Contact Fran McBride Frances.McBride@ggc.scot.nhs.uk Lisa Pattoni lisa.pattoni@iriss.org.uk Asset map: http://www.eastdunassets.org.uk/ WITTY: http://www.iriss.org.uk/resources/witty-whats-important-you