The design and delivery model for the project was developed by the investigating team in collaboration with the workshop delivery lead and Arc Centre, Stockport. The workshop host venue was selected as a leading provider of community health care engagement in the Greater Manchester area, with workshop capacity and resources suitable for the aims of the project. The town centre location and close proximity of bus/rail/road transport networks were a consideration in ensuring ease of access to a wide range of potential participant groups.
A call out for participants was designed and distributed through both existing endometriosis networks in the region and local user groups connected to the Arc Centre with an interest in endometriosis. The reach was further extended using investigator LinkedIn groups and social media posts
The workshop model was devised with artist and experienced workshop facilitator, Helen Mather. Through research that informed postgraduate study in Design, Helen had previously explored materials to develop a language articulating pain and her lived experience of endometriosis, through tensions, forces, and materiality.
For this project we engaged Helen to build on this knowledge to devise a workshop based around the use of handling objects to act as tangible prompts to a discursive engagement and reflection on the lived experience of endometrial pain.The workshop process was carefully designed to capture the dialogue and speculative thought's of participants and facilitators through audio, video and photographic recording equipment and importantly through the scribing activities of workshop assistants using Post-It notes during the delivery period.
The workshop was designed to create a safe and inclusive space for the sharing of health care personal experience. The use of recording equipment was discreet, none intrusive and introduced at the start of each session by the filmmaker Victoria Dahl, who shared her own experience of endometriosis and also being 6 months pregnant, at the time of recording.
The project did not set out to work with a team with direct experience of endometriosis, however, where this has been the case it has greatly informed the building of trust and confidence in the intimate sharing of personal insight in the workshop environment with participant groups.
A schedule for delivery of the workshop allowed for a sequence of choreographed activities across the 3 hour period - from project team introductions to the handling of objects, the sharing of experience, the selection of materials and reflecting on the process to translate the experience of pain into tangible forms.
