Creative partnerships in health

Taking the role of guest editor for the creative partnerships for health issue of the WFOT Bulletin has been an exciting experience, with case studies submitted from all over the world reporting on innovative collaborations involving occupational therapists.

A partnership is participation in doing something with others, such as carrying on a business, dancing, playing a game or simply keeping each other company (Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, 2002). Partnership is, therefore, a natural condition for occupational therapists, who have always worked collaboratively with their clients or service users, with health and social care organisations, with colleagues and with communities. A creative partnership is one that has the quality of being inventive or imaginative; of not being routine or mundane, and this quality is illustrated in all the case studies in this issue.

The world today presents us with many challenges and potential barriers to health, well-being and opportunities for engaging in an appropriate range of occupations. Rapid and accelerating technological, political and social developments frequently bring about major changes in people’s occupations and occupational needs. The pressures that communities around the world are facing in their everyday lives in the twenty-first century include: demographic changes, new patterns of disease, widespread poverty, wars, human displacement, terrorism, environmental degradation and climate change. All these global trends impact on the occupations that people are able to do, have opportunities to do or must to do in order to survive, and this, in turn, can affect their health and well-being (Creek, 2015). Many of them provided the impetus for the creative partnerships described in this journal.

In order to tackle these big issues, it is essential for local, national and international organisations to work together, if they are to be effective in achieving health for all. One of the 17 United Nations sustainable development goals for 2030 is to ‘strengthen the means of implementation and revitalise the global partnership for sustainable development’ (UNDP, 2015). This goal acknowledges that the other 16 sustainable development goals ‘can only be realized with a strong commitment to global partnership and cooperation’.

Occupational therapists are taking the initiative in developing and sustaining creative partnerships at all levels, from local to global, and several of these are described in this issue of the WFOT Bulletin. Through these case studies, we can explore some of the parameters of creative partnerships, such as the number and types of partners involved, the features and dynamics of partnership working, and the range of outcomes, many of which are remarkable.

The people and bodies that make up creative partnerships for health include: government bodies; nongovernmental organisations (NGOs); third sector organisations, such as charities; private companies; educational institutions; different professions; communities; service users, and volunteers. They may be groups, multinational organisations or individuals. They may be located in the same setting or on different continents. It seems there are few limits to the size and scope of successful creative partnerships.

The case studies in this issue also illustrate some of the features of successful creative partnerships, from the contributions of different partners to the necessary conditions for creativity to emerge. One of the strengths of working in partnership is that each partner brings different resources, including knowledge, experience, funding, and commitment. However, it is also necessary for them to share a vision of what can be achieved, to trust and respect each other and to communicate effectively. Some authors emphasise the importance of the relationships between partners, while most talk about how these relationships develop through working together. Partnerships are always dynamic, changing over time in response to needs, circumstances and the influence of both internal and external factors. Issues of power are acknowledged and addressed, focusing on the need to share responsibility, to identify key stakeholders, and to be open to different points of view.

In these accounts of creative partnerships from four continents and many countries, we can see that they have developed in response to similar circumstances; people observe an unmet need and look around for partners to help with finding and implementing creative solutions. The explicit purpose of these partnerships includes such diverse goals as: establishing new programmes of education and training; creating opportunities for employment and other occupations; influencing government policy; raising public awareness; creating supportive social networks, and bringing about social change. All of them involve taking action. All of them are concerned with improving the quality of services, of people’s lives and of the conditions of everyday living.

The outcomes of many of these creative partnerships transcend the original aims of the partners. Authors write about transformation taking place both in the recipients of partnership projects and in the partners themselves. These transformations include deep learning and attitude change, increased strength and capability, power and ownership. One of the significant features of partnerships is that the outcomes not only depend on the contributions of everyone involved but also affect all the individual partners and their networks, so that there is a ripple effect with the impact of the work spreading in many directions.

The key message I have taken from reading these inspiring accounts of creative partnership is that we have to be able to see opportunities and take the initiative to seize them. As one case study puts it: ‘Just get started, the situation will never be right’ (Olsen, Wilson, & Beeson, this issue). Partnership working has the capability of energising participants so that they work more creatively, sustain their commitment for longer and, in the process, find themselves growing in confidence and strength. Read these accounts and try it for yourself.