life story work

Personal stories

A series of written stories that illustrate how the divide between health and social care affects people's lives. They have been included in the Commission on the Future of Health and Social Care call for evidence.

Patient Voices

Patient Voices digital stories use video, audio, still images and music to convey patients', carers', practitioners' and managers' own stories in a unique way. They are intended to touch the hearts of managers, clinicians and others striving to improve the quality of health and social care. Workshops are increasingly being used to engage with, and evidence outputs from, the Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) and patient engagement agendas, together with being used to provide qualitative evidence of the patient experience.

Listen, learn, act: harnessing the power of personal stories to drive service improvement

Guidance that: outlines the benefits of person-centred story-gathering; explores the skills required to gather personal stories; considers legal and ethical issues associated with NHS story-gathering; highlights the principles of good governance that must underpin such work; shares best practice; supports staff to ensure that the information shared by patients, their carers and colleagues; and produces positive results, both for the service and for the individuals involved.

Story sharing guidance: a guide to inform the process of sharing personal experiences related to mental health and recovery

Guide that aims to support and inform those wishing to assist others to share a personal narrative, as well as providing guidance for those considering sharing their own personal narrative.

It does not attempt to address issues raised by the therapeutic uses of storytelling.

Where from? Where now?

Project which aims to create a textured picture of the day-to-day reality of homelessness as experienced by the women who are living through it and the insights from the people who support them.

The website is an online platform that brings together the work created over the 18-month project, which culminated in an exhibition at gallery@oxo from 14th - 18th November on London's South Bank in November 2012.

Supporting those with dementia: reminiscence therapy and life story work (IRISS Insights, no.4)

One of a series of reports providing the social services workforce with brief, accessible and practice-oriented summaries of published evidence on key topics.

Developed through a process of rapid appraisal, Insights seek to highlight the practice implications of research evidence and answer the 'So what does this mean in practice?' question for each topic reviewed.

This Insight looks at reminiscence therapy and life story work for those with dementia.