On 9th October, we brought together the practitioners who have been testing the personal asset mapping tool together for the last time. At this session, we were keen to hear more about how they’d been getting on trialing the tool out in practice, as well as listening to their reflections on the process and being involved in the project overall.
Here are some of the things that practitioners said that they had learned in the project:
“How beneficial asset mapping can be to achieve individual goals”
“I’ve learned that I didnโt know some of my clients as well as I thought”
“How the tool can be used across the board, not just about mental health”
“Potential to use the maps with individuals and groups but needs buy-in from practitioners”
“That practitioners from different backgrounds are very skilled”
Similarly, we were aware that many of the practitioners involved in the project were very used to working within set-out processes, with validated tools and that working in an exploratory way would take them out of their comfort zone. We knew this might bring a number of challenges for the practitioners, which we were keen to understand better.
We asked practitioners about some of the fears that they’d overcome throughout the project process, and one of the clear themes was developing confidence – both in using the tool, but in their own skills as a practitioner. Some examples of other factors mentioned by the practitioners include:
“Overcame the people I supportโs initial doubts about the project.”
“Overcome- lack of confidence in my knowledge.”
“Making something complex simple enough to explain.”
Practitioners were clear that there were still some barriers that would need to be overcome before the approach could be embedded in practice. These barriers included:
“The future. Where we go from here? Will the digital tool be used.? Selling asset mapping to staff.”
“Becoming more practiced in utilising the tool with others with different needs and support.”
“Follow up and engagement with people who use services”
“Adapting it so that it works for the majority or at least so they will try it.”
It was invaluable to get this feedback from the practitioners, and the project team will be considering these issues as we move the project forward – particularly that of ‘selling’ and communicating the goals and outcomes of the process to other practitioners working locally.
As part of the project evaluation, and understanding the worth of the process, we will, of course, be following up with individuals to find out how they felt about their experience of being involved in the project, to understand if they felt differently after having gone through the asset mapping process and to determine any changes they might have made as a result of this. A full report will be available in due course.
We are also working together with the Connections (The Richmond Fellowship) peer-support group to develop the next prototype of the digital tool, ensuring that people who use services are at the centre of the development process.
We’d like to thank all of the people who were involved in testing the tool and process in practice – your hard work, commitment and openness has made the project possible.