Assessment and Treatment Wards (ATW) support individuals with learning disabilities in situations where the required clinical response goes beyond that possible in the community. Individuals can find the transition into an ATW challenging, partly due to the complex and rapidly changing dynamics within it. Staff’s focus on person-centred practice, and health care environments as places of growth and healing, can also be undermined by circumstances out-with their control, such as delayed discharge. Gaining fresh perspective on these issues can be difficult for those working within them. For these reasons, a novel collaboration with the Glasgow School of Art (GSA) School of Innovation & Technology (SIT) was developed, to explore new approaches to the relational transitions which characterise admissions.

2 GSA SIT interns from the Product Design Undergraduate course were recruited to work with staff and patients of the Ayrshire ATW over 5 weeks. Using co-design methods and approaches, they captured participants’ insights, in order to develop resources which could support patients during admission, enable them to record their progress, and remind them of their achievements post-discharge. Opportunities for patients to leave a legacy within the ward for others to benefit from were also explored.

The interns co-created a wellbeing journal to be held by patients. Alongside this, a framework booklet for staff was created to document, share and celebrate their creative capabilities to help them produce future engagement activities and better evidence the value from their current service.

This work was supported by the NHS Ayrshire and Arran Mental Health Endowments Fund.