An unhealthy power dynamic between formal services and the people they serve is now understood to be a key factor behind entrenched and enduring health inequalities. Addressing it is hard, partly because power is seldom talked about and partly because power holders tend not to want to give up power, even when the outcome will be better for them.
Health Creation Alliance produced a set of ‘power tools’ for Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partners to help power holders – wherever they are within the system – to gain insights into how power works and to learn constructive ways of shifting and sharing power with communities. They tools were released in early 2020 and we are now making them more widely available as a free resource to help busy leaders throughout the health, care and community sectors to practice ‘power-shifting’ within their day-to-day situations.
The Power Deck and Narrative are now available for you to download and use for free.
If you would like to find out more about our Discovery Learning Programme – that helps organisations and systems both to shift power and to embed Health Creation throughout all aspects of their practice, please email Peter Hay peter_hay@btinternet.com or Merron Simpson merron@newrealities.co.uk for an informal conversation.
The Power Deck is a series of ‘cards’ each containing a task that busy professionals can fit within their daily work. There are many ways they can be used, for example; on your own, with your team, with community members, with people you report to. It can be downloaded here: Power shifting card deck
The Power Narrative offers a framework for shifting to person and community centred (Health Creating) approaches. It helps to contextualise use of the Power Deck within your own community. It can be downloaded here: Shifting Power Narrative
Please feel free to use them, and share them with your colleagues, to take actions that will help to shift to a new power dynamic particularly between health and care professionals and communities.