Using stories to develop capacity for Involvement around Animal Research

 

Using stories to develop capacity for Involvement around Animal Research

Introducing a creative script to help people working in research think through the first steps of patient engagement with animals

Research conducted by members of the AnNex team has highlighted the growing number of initiatives designed to engage and involve people with health conditions with the research that affects them. Our research has also identified some of the challenges that emerge as people affected by health conditions are invited into animal facilities or asked to evaluate research involving animals.

In this blog, we introduce a creative intervention designed to support researchers and event organisers in having the sorts of conversations that would create care-full events in which people affected by health conditions can engage with the animals used in research on their condition. It uses a scripted story, based on the Care-full Stories approach, to explore the different perspectives of those taking part in a site visit to a zebrafish facility.

Care-full Stories was developed by Professor Beth Greenhough, with creative professional Ida Persson, as part of her work on the Animal Research Nexus Programme. It is an innovative training resource, aimed at supporting conversations about cultures of care for those who work in or around animal research. It uses scripted storytelling to develop discussions in which people can talk about what they care for and to listen to the perspective of others.

Used within a workshop setting, volunteers read out the scripts, ideally taking on roles different to their usual position in relation to the workplace. Participants then collectively talk through a series of discussion points the script was designed to raise. Many of the scenarios and characters are based on reality, but are exaggerated caricatures, which condense and simplify key points for everyone to debate. You can find out more information about how the Care-full Stories approach was developed and evaluated in Beth Greenhough’s earlier blog post.

Many of the challenges of communication around generating and sustaining cultures of care are also present as researchers start learning to listen to different voices in research involvement. There are now several guides to patient and public involvement (PPI) in laboratory research. Davies and Gorman have produced two reports in their AnNex work, one analysing the experiences of those taking part in PPI that involves animals, and one connecting practical resources around openness, animal models and ethical review to help support these conversations.

Guest blogger Natasha Ratcliffe also introduced the work of Parkinson’s UK, Alzheimer’s Society and University College London Hospitals NIHR Biomedical Research Centre on our website, looking at experiences PPI in lab-based research studies. Their project has resulted in the development of new guidance to support lab based researchers at all stages of their careers to actively involve patients, carers and members of the public.

However, these resources tend to focus on the more technical aspects of organising and evaluating PPI, rather than the emotional experiences of those doing and taking part in involvement. We wanted to add to the information available about how to have conversations at this emerging interface with a creative intervention that would help cultivate empathy across different positions. We worked with both Ida and Beth on creating a new script to sit within their Care-full Stories work, aiming to help people working in research think through the first steps of incorporating careful patient engagement and involvement.

We have put together two scripts – one longer one to be used in standalone training workshops for engagement or involvement involving animal research, and one shorter one that fits within the existing package of Care-full Stories scripts. We are delighted to make these available for anyone to use here, and we look forward to hearing your experiences of using them.

If you have any questions or feedback on the script, please email Gail Davies at g.f.davies@exeter.ac.uk. For more information on the Care-full Stories work, please email Beth Greenhough at beth.greenhough@ouce.ox.ac.uk.

 

We wanted to add to the information available about how to have conversations at this emerging interface with a creative intervention that would help cultivate empathy across different positions