Chapter 77 – Denise Lyons (D5SOP16)
Domain 5 Standard of Proficiency 16
Understand the role of, and be able to demonstrate skills in the use of creative and recreational interventions in social care work to meet the needs of the service user in a variety of contexts.
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KEY TERMS Defining recreation Defining creativity Recreation and creativity as interventions in social care practice |
Social care is … planned practice. In the day-to-day lived experience of practice, social care work appears ‘in the moment’. However, the worker’s response is a planned approach to meet needs, uphold rights and enhance the potential for meaningful and creative shared experiences. |
Despite the importance of creative and recreational interventions in social care practice, there is only one standard of proficiency that references the terms ‘creativity’ and ‘recreation’. Chapter 72, which describes ‘activity’ as opportunities for meaning-making, increased participation and engagement, should be read in conjunction with this chapter. ‘Intervention(s)’ are discussed widely: as requiring consent (Chapter 15); as part of the care plan developed in partnership with the service user (Chapter 35), which needs to be evaluated and revised (Chapter 48) in terms of risk (Chapter 50). These key terms are addressed here in this chapter, but also included is a discussion of the importance for the student of engaging in creative and recreational activities during their formal training, as well as the benefits for the service user, which are broader than identifying needs. This proficiency requires an understanding of the role of creativity and recreation as an intervention within social care to meet needs in a variety of contexts, and also requires that the student be able to demonstrate skills in using these interventions. This is a challenging task; therefore, I have drawn on the expertise and knowledge of my colleagues in the Creativity and Innovation in Social Care (CISC) network to support this discussion (Jackson 2021; Mac Giolla Rí 2020).
Defining Recreation
Recreation is a term used to define the active participation in variety of pursuits for fun, education, socialising, exercise and sport (Kraus 1998; Benatuil 2018; Rodriguez de la Vega & Toscano 2018). Recreational activities are ‘undertaken by choice during free time, with the aim of experiencing the pleasure derived from the activity itself and finding in it intimate satisfaction and an opportunity for recreation’ (Benatuil 2018: 52). Recreation is deemed separate from leisure, which is viewed as a passive experience during your free time (Klaus 1998). Benatuil (2018: 53) states that although both leisure and recreation relate to pleasure and enjoyment, they are distinct in the following ways:
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Recreation |
Leisure |
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Organised and directed activities. |
Entertainment-related activities. |
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Planned – can be engaged in as an individual or a group. |
Random – can be engaged in as an individual or a group. |
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Active – associated with participation and engagement with a planned activity. |
Passive – associated with free time and relaxation. |
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Emphasis on doing, outcomes or challenges and goals. |
Little or no emphasis on doing challenges. |
People choose to engage in recreational activities to enhance their creativity and as an outlet for their personal expression and interest (Klaus 1998; Benatuil 2018). The types of recreational activities used as interventions in social care settings are physical (sport activities, including the Special Olympics, active games, fitness and exercise classes, swimming and walking), social (participation in non-sporting clubs and societies, parties and trips out as a group) and creative (art, drama, singing and music) to name a few. Engaging in recreational activities enables service users to become active participants in their community, to become healthier, to maintain friendships, have fun, increase their overall wellbeing and exercise choice.
TASK 1
Read Chapter 72 and create examples of recreational interventions that involve the head (planned practice to meet needs), the heart (relationship development)and the hands (doing with others – community engagement).
Defining Creativity
Creativity is defined by Benatuil (2018) as a form of recreation and by Mac Giolla Rí (2020: 86) as ‘an ordinary human ability’ that can be experienced and practised by all. Understanding creativity includes a knowledge of the theoretical perspectives that underpin creative practice. Kaufman and Beghetto (2009) make a distinction between big ‘C’ creativity, or the activities we associate with professional artists, musicians and thespians, and little ‘c’, which includes the everyday creative pursuits of planting a garden, decorating a cake, or styling your external identity through your clothes or hair colour. The perception that big C creativity is only experienced by individuals with an enhanced ability or talent has been challenged (Runco 2007). Over time, with prolonged engagement in the creative activity, and a little luck (Runco 2014), ordinary people can explore new ideas (Boden 2009) and ways of working and self-expression to create at a big C level. For Runco, everyday creativity involves the same processes as big C: ‘after the creative idea is produced, expertise may add to it, persistence may allow a refinement of it, impression management may couch it so it is accepted, and so on, but the creative part of the process (e.g., the construction of an original interpretation of experience) is the same as the creativity of little c creativity’ (2014: 132). Thus, creativity is not defined by an outcome or product that is deemed of value; it is about the dynamic process and the changes or benefits experienced from engaging in the creative act (Walia 2019). Runco (2007) redefined creativity as a hierarchical framework, building on his original theory of the 4 Ps (person, product, process and place). This framework makes a distinction between creative potential (person = your personality, process = cognitive and social, place = access and environment) and creative performance (products of creativity). Here creativity is affected by the individual, their ideas and motivation, and the external environment. This theory is relevant to social care work as the environment, including the service and the staff members, has a role to play in the service user’s ability to engage in creativity.
TASK 2
Understanding Creativity
For a greater understanding of creativity, read the journal article by Denise Mac Giolla Rí (2020), ‘Learning to put everyday creativity, semiotics and critical visual, semiotics and critical visual literacy using inquiry graphics (IG) visual analysis to work in social care’ in the Irish Journal of Applied Social Studies, Vol. 20, Issue 2, available at https://arrow.tudublin.ie/ijass/vol20/iss2/.
TASK 3
Questions about Your Creativity
How do you express your creativity? Do you define yourself as a creative person? If yes, in what way? What are your fears around engaging in creative activities during your studies or practice?
Interventions in Social Care Practice
Evident from the multiple workplaces of the chapter authors in this text, social care is practised in a variety of different settings, with a shared aim; to provide care and support for children or adults. Irrespective of the setting, social care workers are directly involved with people, using assessment and planned interventions to provide for the holistic needs of diverse and vulnerable populations (Lalor & Share 2013). The Standards of Proficiency for Social Care Workers (SCWRB 2017) state that interventions are only provided when consent is granted and documented (D1 SOP 15 – see Chapter 15) and are created in partnership with the service user and his or her family, when appropriate (D2 SOP 12 – see Chapter 35). SCWRB (2017) also references the importance of reviewing the intervention based on the service user’s feedback and of ensuring that this is documented and included in all future plans (D3 SOP 8 – see Chapter 49). Students become familiar with the term ‘intervention’ from their placement portfolio, used as an opportunity for students to demonstrate initiative and planned practice and integrated knowledge (IASCE 2009). Students, under the supervision of their practice educator, and with consent from and in collaboration with the service user, plan an intervention to meet the needs of service users, and demonstrate the practical skills learned through creative studies modules (Graham & Megarry 2003). The creative studies text Creative Studies for the Caring Professions (Lyons 2010) includes multiple creative interventions (in each chapter and in the appendix) that can be adapted and used with service users from a variety of social care settings. Facilitating creative and recreational interventions with service users enables you, the worker, to have an active role in their engagement in creativity and an opportunity to demonstrate your skills. Creative and recreational interventions have multiple roles in social care practice and education, which include, but are not limited to, social development, increased cognitive engagement, fun, relaxation, self-expression, movement, imagination, promoting resilience, freedom, choice and meaning-making (Lyons 2010; Mac Giolla Rí 2010, 2020), and this chapter focuses on the following roles: relationship development; to meet needs; for community engagement; and for self-awareness and facilitation skill development.
Relationship Development
Social care work is experienced through the relationship between the worker and the service user and engaging in recreational and creative activities can facilitate this process. Creativity in practice is reliant on your ability as a social care worker to facilitate a psychologically and physically safe space for personal expression and play. This begins with the relationship between you and the service user, inspired by your own courage to take risks, by being less self-conscious of your image-making or creative expression. This process starts with the relationship as you learn the likes and dislikes of your service user(s) and the types of activities they may be interested in.
One example of how creativity in social care education can support the relationship development of students and service users is evident in a joint initiative between the Daughters of Charity Disability Support Services and TU Dublin Blanchardstown Campus that began in 2009. ‘Learners’, adults with an intellectual disability from the daughters of Charity Service, became full-time students in the creative studies module on the social care programme in TU Dublin. As well as studying in the classroom together and developing relationships as student peers, this project provided opportunities for people with an intellectual disability to actively participate in the college community. This also created an informal space for social care students to learn the fundamentals of how to communicate and develop relationships with people with diverse needs. As the lecturer, I noticed how the ‘learners’, through their creative freedom of self-expression, encouraged the social care students to play, have fun and fully engage in the creative activities. Relationships formed naturally and social care students became both learner and teacher as they sat together doing the shared activities.
To Meet Needs
Meeting the needs of service users is a core threshold in the Standards of Proficiency for Social Care Workers (SCWRB 2017). Students must demonstrate that they ‘understand the role and impact of effective interdisciplinary team working’ in meeting needs (Chapter 37), ‘gather all appropriate background information relevant’ to the service user’s needs (Chapter 41), ‘demonstrate an evidence-informed approach’ and adapt practice to meet needs (Chapter 46), ‘identify and document … unmet needs’ (Chapter 55), ‘demonstrate safe and effective implementation of a range of practical, technical and professional practice skills relating to … specific needs’ (Chapter 73) and ‘recognise the role of advocacy in promoting needs’ (Chapter 76). The Freda principles of fairness, respect, equity, dignity and autonomy (HIQA 2019) is an excellent framework to support the application of creative and recreational activities to meet needs in a human rights-based approach to practice.
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Principle |
Role of Creative and Recreational Interventions |
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Fairness |
Listen to the service user and seek out their likes and dislikes. Ensure that they have all the information needed to make a decision on what intervention they would like to engage in. Receive consent before beginning your creative or recreational intervention. |
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Respect |
Spend time with the service user before engaging in creative or recreational activities with them. Work at their pace and be courteous in your manner and how you communicate. Listen without judgement and respect their likes, dislikes and interests. |
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Equity |
Support your service user to have equal opportunities and to fully engage in activities of their choosing. You may need to adapt the intervention to ensure that people of mixed ability can engage fully in the intervention. Always assume that the service user has the capacity to engage, first, before you exclude an experience or activity from them. |
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Dignity |
You can demonstrate dignity to the service user in the way you communicate the stages of an activity or intervention. Risk assess all interventions to ensure that the service user is not physically or psychologically harmed based on their participation. |
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Autonomy |
Service users express their autonomy in getting to choose the activities and interventions they want to experience. It is important to support the autonomy of the service user to refuse to engage in your intervention or plan. |
TASK 4
Apply the FREDA principles to this case study and note the important steps Sharon needs to take to ensure that the intervention applies the principles offairness, respect, equity, dignity and autonomy.
Case Study 1
The following practice example was shared with me by one of my past students, who is now a social care leader in a residential service for adults with an intellectual disability. Sharon (not her real name) used an activity she had learned in her first-year creative skills module in her work with one service user preparing for his person-centred plan presentation day (PCP day). Paul (not his real name) is non-verbal, so Sharon used the ‘clay world’ workshop to support Paul to visually express his plan for the coming year. Using clay, Paul carved out his dream of going on holiday, through the shape of a plane, his plan to learn how to travel independently to the day service, evident from his happy face on the bus and the importance of family and friends, illustrated through heart and star shapes. Creating the clay world together enabled Sharon to learn about Paul’s desires for his future and the activity produced a tangible object that he could bring to his PCP day to share these ideas with his friends and family. This clay world activity was used to meet Paul’s need to communicate using tools that related to his ability, will and preference.
The clay world intervention that Sharon used is available to view on YouTube. The video is a recorded workshop (poorly edited and filmed by myself), but offered as an sample activity for social care students in IT Carlow. The three participants, IT Carlow lecturer Caroline French, jewellery maker Tracey Weir and myself, made three clay tiles to represent our life and interests through clay.
TASK 5
Watch the Clay World Workshop and make your own clay world to represent you and your current needs or desires. The full workshop is available to watch on YouTube with permission to share granted by the three participants.
Community Engagement
Recreational and creative activities play an important role in increased community participation. Walking around the community and visiting the local amenities, like the post office, library and coffee shop, are planned activities for increased community engagement and social learning (Ross et al. 2009; HSE 2012). The New Directions Report (HSE 2012) noted the importance of leaving the centre and getting out into community spaces, becoming members of local recreational clubs and societies and taking part in activities as examples of the normalisation of care (Gilbert 2009). Getting to and from the activity enables the worker to spend quality time with the service user, and use the time to chat and learn more about their interests and potential new hobbies. Ferguson (2009) discussed the importance of the ‘car conversations’, as being in the car supports open, free conversation and a sharing of stories about the activity experienced.
Case Study 2
Scott (not his real name) is a 30-year-old man with a mild intellectual disability who lives in a community house with three other males, all over 60 years old. Although Scott communicated to staff that he was lonely and wanted to make new friends, he was reluctant to join any of the groups in the local community where he lived. Scott was interested in taking photographs and I asked him would he like to participate in creating a photographic collage made from images of his world and all the people and places he loved. So, with consent from Scott and the support of the team, we began to plan the project, beginning with the purchase of a disposable camera.
On one of our ‘photographic walks’ through the village, Scott stopped to take a shot of the street we had just walked up. He was outside a Men’s Shed and one of the participants came out to say hello and asked Scott about the project. Scott was invited to visit the Men’s Shed to talk to the other members about his photographic collage. Walking past the Men’s Shed became part of the photographic walks and Scott eventually gained the courage to drop in and say hello and chat to the men about what they were making. The photographic project and his meeting the members of the Men’s Shed was the beginning of his increased participation in the community.
TASK 6
Think of a new creative or recreational intervention that could support a service user to actively engage in the community.
Read Chapter 72 for more information on community engagement, the use of spaces within the service and the role of car conversations for meaningful moments in your practice.
Self-awareness and Facilitation Skill Development
Engaging in recreational and creative activities with your service user ‘fosters hidden potential, growth and actualisation … encourages playful and imaginative engagement with processes and critical reflection, within a safe space, so new ideas and practices can emerge’ (Mac Giolla Rí 2020: 86). Social care workers need to experience creativity to help them to develop empathy, to become sensitive to the emotions of others, to learn how to adapt and change in order to meet the diverse needs of service users (Jackson 2021). Encouraging creativity in others begins with the development of your own skills, which can be based on your own participation in recreational and creative activities, or during the time spent on the creative modules in your formal social care education. Central to creative skill development is the ability to facilitate activities that are strengths-based, timed in a way that reflects the ability and pace of the service user, and based on their choice and interest and/or need.
TASK 7
Understanding FacilitationFor a greater understanding of how to facilitate creative and or recreational activities, read the chapter by Paul Timoney (2010) ‘Creative Group Facilitation’ in Lyons, D. (ed.), Creative Studies for the Caring Professions
Use the template in that chapter to design a creative activity for your service user.
Creative modules are viewed as an important part of social care education, in part for the development of facilitation and creative skills, but also to offer students experiential creative experiences for their own self-expression, reflection, self-awareness and relationship development (Lyons 2010). Some programmes may include recreational activities as part of the suite of experiences offered to students. Recreational activities may be more accessible to students from their own life experiences outside college, experienced through their membership of sports groups and clubs, and social outings in the community. Therefore, many social care programmes focus on the development of the students’ creative and facilitation skills. The creative modules are important for skill development and through practical experience students learn about the different materials and types of activities they can use and adapt to the different people they will encounter in practice. Students do not need any prior knowledge or experience in the arts to actively engage in the workshops and this will help students understand that creativity is for all, irrespective of ability. The classroom becomes a safe space for the student to practise their creative and facilitation skills without the pressure of producing a finished product. The importance of the process, messing with the materials, learning by doing, sharing personal information, being encouraged by others, helps students understand how to create with others. Over time students develop a ‘tool-box’ of creative activities they can use as interventions in practice.
Practice placement is the space where students experience the value of recreational and creative activities in terms of seeing how engaging in creative activities can enhance relationships, demonstrate facilitation skills and meet needs. Students on placement have more time to spend with service users and creative and recreational activities form an important part of their time together. By applying the FREDA principles (HIQA 2019), students can facilitate activities that meet needs, promote fairness, respect and autonomy and enable service users to be seen in ways that promote their abilities, strengths and capacity. Creativity can also challenge the student’s preconceived ideas about the service user by providing opportunities to see them in a new way. My first social care placement in the early 1990s was a sheltered workshop for adults with a physical disability and the following case study is an example of one service user’s capacity to engage in creative interventions.
Case Study 3
One day a dance teacher came to the centre to facilitate a workshop with the service users and students on placement. One of the service users, Tom (not his real name), was in an electric wheelchair and I noticed that he was also attending the session. I did not know Tom well at this stage and I wondered how he was going to actively participate in the workshop. Music filled the large hall, and the facilitator told all participants (service users and social care students) to create shapes with their body as they moved in time with the melody. At first, I was very self-conscious of ‘dancing’ until I noticed that everyone else had become lost in the music and their own movements. Tom started to move his chair in a figure of eight shape, in time with the music. The dance teacher, seeing this, responded to Tom’s movements and began to dance with him. At one point, she was sitting on the side of the wheelchair as they moved around the hall creating beautiful shapes as one unit. This was a key learning moment for me, in realising how I had underestimated Tom’s ability to actively engage, based on my preconceived and inaccurate ideas about him. In that moment, Tom was not defined by his wheelchair or disability – Tom was a dancer.
TASK 8
Watch the video from ‘Gravity’ Wheelchair Dance by Marisa Hamamoto and PiotrIwanicki, available on YouTube:
Depending on the setting and the interests and needs of the service user, creative and recreational interventions may form part of the day-to-day lived experience of practice. Social care workers can use activities within practice as opportunities for self-expression, for imagination, to illustrate person-centred plans, and to have fun. It is important for social care workers to ignore the internal critic, lead by example, and play freely with their own creative expression, without fear of producing an end product which will be judged by others as either ‘good’ or ‘bad’. Some settings provide more opportunity to engage in creativity than others, but there are many ways to use recreational and creative interventions to meet the needs of all our service users. The social care worker plays an important role in supporting the service user to engage in activities and this time spent together helps to enhance your relationship as well as provide opportunities to assess and meet needs.
Tips for Practice Educators
Creativity for self-expression – Ask the student to work directly with one service user on a creative activity that is fun and enables the service user to share something about themselves.
Use of materials – Encourage the student to look at past activities completed by the service users and create a new activity using the same materials.
Recreational activities – Ask the student to focus on one service user and through communication and based on their needs, interests and choice, to support them to join a new group or plan a social outing.
FREDA principles – Ask the student to apply the FREDA principles to the creative and/or recreational activities they have planned for placement.
References
Benatuil, D. (2018) ‘Recreation, Non-formal Education and Socialization as Factors Enhancing Well-Being: The Place of the Madrich in the Jewish Community’ in L. Rodriguez de la Vega and
W. Toscano (eds), Handbook of Leisure, Physical Activity, Sports, Recreation and Quality of Life. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International.
Boden, M. A. (2009) ‘Computer models of creativity’, AI Magazine 30(3): 23-34.
Ferguson, H. (2009) ‘Driven to care: The car, automobility and social work’, Mobilities 4(2): 275-93.
Gilbert, T. (2009) ‘From the Workhouse to Citizenship: Four Ages of Learning Disability’ in M. Jukes (ed), Learning Disability Nursing Practice: Origins, Perspectives and Practice (pp. 134-203). London: MA Healthcare.
Graham, G. and Megarry, B. (2003) ‘Social care portfolio: An aid to integrated learning and reflection’, Irish Journal of Applied Social Studies 14: 1-23.
HIQA (Health Information and Quality Authority) (2019) Guidance on a Human Rights-based Approach in Health and Social Care Services. Dublin: HIQA.
HSE (Health Service Executive) (2012) New Directions: Review of the HSE Day Services and Implementation Plan 2012-2016, Personal Support Services for Adults with Disabilities Working Group Report. Dublin: HSE.
IASCE (Irish Association of Social Care Educators) (2009) Practice Placement Manual. Dublin: IASCE.
Jackson, N. J. (2021) Survey of Perceptions of Creativity in Social Care Work and Education. CISC CISC Network Ireland Working Paper.
Kaufman, J. C. and Beghetto, R. A. (2009) ‘Beyond big and little: The Four C Model of Creativity’, Review of General Psychology 13(1): 1-12, doi: 10.1037/a0013688.
Kraus, R. G. (1998) Recreation and Leisure in Modern Society. Massachusetts: Jones and Bartlett.
Lalor, K. and Share, P. (2013) ‘Understanding Social Care’ in K. Lalor and P. Share (eds), Applied Social Care: An Introduction for Students in Ireland (pp. 3-18). Dublin: Gill and Macmillian.
Lyons, D. (2010) ‘Introduction to Creative Studies in the Caring Professions’, in D. Lyons (ed.), Creative Studies for the Caring Professions. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan.
Mac Giolla Rí, D. (2010) ‘The Benefits of Using Creative Art’ in D. Lyons (ed.), Creative Studies for the Caring Professions. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan.
Mac Giolla Rí, D. (2020) ‘Learning to put everyday creativity, semiotics and critical visual literacy using inquiry graphics (IG) visual analysis to work in social care’, Irish Journal of Applied Social Studies 20(2), Article 9: 81-97.
Rodriguez de la Vega, L. and Toscano, W. (eds) (2018) Handbook of Leisure, Physical Activity, Sports, Recreation and Quality of Life. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International.
Ross, N. J., Renold, E., Holland, S. and Hillman, A. (2009) ‘Moving stories: Using mobile methods to explore the everyday lives of young people in public care’, Qualitative Research 9(5) 605-23.
Runco, M. A. (2007) ‘A hierarchical framework for the study of creativity’, New Horizons in Education 55(3): 1-9. Available at <https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228643794_A_hierarchical_ framework_for_the_study_of_creativity>.
Runco, M. A. (2014) ‘“Big C, little c” creativity as a false dichotomy: Reality is not categorical’, Creativity Research Journal 26(1): 131-2, doi: 10.1080/10400419.2014.873676.
Social Care Workers Registration Board (2017) Standards of proficiency for social care work. Dublin: CORU Health and Social Care Regulator.
Timoney, P. (2010) ‘Creative Group Facilitation’ in D. Lyons (ed.), Creative Studies for the Caring Professions. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan.
Walia, C. (2019) ‘A dynamic definition of creativity, Creativity Research Journal 31(3): 237-47.
