Blue-health: a ‘therapy boat’ that boosts mental health (5 min read)

Whilst carefully designed and psychologically informed environments are crucial considerations when designing support services, this charity takes it one step further by taking therapy out of the office and into the water.

Sea Sanctuary was established after extensive consultation across Cornwall and the South West, where there are higher levels of poor mental health than the national average, but inadequate provision to care for those needing help. The consultation highlighted that a new approach and new facilities were needed to help people suffering from poor mental health for whom the standard medical model for treatment was not working.

Camden Imagines: Imagination is not day-dreaming (4 min read)

The Camden Imagines project is all about building imagination capacity in Camden, and partnering with others to embed imagination into how things work in the local area. In their first blog, Jo Brown, Director of People and Inclusion at Camden Council, makes the case for why imagination is crucial for the public sector, and what we might be losing if we dismiss it as simply ‘day-dreaming’. You can follow them on their journey as they blog their learning, or hear from Phoebe Tickell who is working on the initiative at a free online event about imagination activism.

That quiet little voice: when design and ethics collide (55 min watch)

A talk by George Aye of Greater Good studio, as part of the London Design Festival about some of the weaknesses baked into the discipline of design which are often exposed when designers and innovation practitioners deal with complex social issues and treat them like any other human-centred innovation challenge. The lack of ethical guidelines creates a serious risk of doing more harm than good. This presentation and Q&A explores what needs to change to protect communities and participants, and practical tips we can use in our day to day work as design and innovation practitioners.