72 ‘Kicking up our heels’ workshop – an arts intervention to support staff self care

Professor Brian Lobel and Dr Emily Underwood-Lee will share their methods and findings from the ‘Kicking Up Our Heels’ GOSH Arts project which took place in Great Ormond Street Hospital in 2019 and 2020. The project encouraged parents and families of patients of Great Ormond Street to think about their own self-care. During this session you will be gently encouraged to think about your self care as a staff member at GOSH. ’Kicking Up Our Heels’ used performance and visual art to involve parents/carers of children at GOSH in considering their own wellbeing as primary carers. Brian Lobel and Emily Underwood-Lee invited parents/carers to take part in a playful performative ‘survey’ about how they nurtured and looked after themselves whilst caring for a child in the hospital. In their responses parents were encouraged to get beyond the notion of the ‘good parent’ who subjugates their needs for those of their children. The responses were used by artist Emily Speed to design a permanent artwork, Cocoon, which was installed at GOSH in February 2020 and was accompanied by a paper booklet ‘You are Doing a Great Job’, which incorporated ideas and activities offered by parents to improve their own and others’ wellbeing.