The Productive Pessimist

Along with  co-production , lived experience has become something of a buzzword in recent years, and, as with all 'trends', people are moving from engaged curiousity to wary suspicion. At The Productive Pessimist, we work exclusively from a position of lived experience - but what does that mean, and what, really, is  lived experience? What Working From Lived Experience Means For Us Working from lived experience means everyone on the Productive Pessimist team has been through what they're guiding others towards understanding of.   We didn't just take a 5hr course, watch a couple of YouTube videos, or read a bestselling book. For example, I (Ash) have the following lived experience: . 22yrs lived experience of managing all aspects of rural living, including travelling 30+ miles for work, without a car . 19yrs lived experience with serious pyschiatric conditions . 16yrs lived experience in trans masculine experience and identity . 9yrs lived experience of kinship care, ...

  Here's your eyes back - you rolled them a little too hard at the mention of 'trauma'. And I get it. I really do. It can seem as though everyone is "traumatised" and "triggered" these days, and, as a business leader, it can feel like something that's definitely not  your problem. The thing is, you're going to be very lucky as a business if you encounter anyone  who hasn't  experienced at least one traumatising event - most of us don't make it to adulthood without encountering trauma at least in passing. A 'traumatising event'? What's that when it's at home?! One of the primary aspects of becoming trauma-informed is recognising the distinction between a traumatising event, and a traumatising stimulus. A traumatising event is what happened to you - it could be something as huge as being assaulted, or caught up in a terrorist attack or natural disaster, or as small as someone shouting at you at work, or not being able to buy...

  "Mental health at work" has become something of a buzz phrase in recent years, particularly in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. "Mental health" is the reason people "need to get back to the office" - because the extroverts are suffering, since they're no longer able to dominate meetings, talk people into agreeing to take on more work than they're actually comfortable with, or enthusiastically create a situation where, if getting drunk with people you already spend too much time with, or leaping on a zip wire, aren't really your thing, you're "unadventurous", "anti-social", and "not really a team player." The UK government insist work is good  for our "mental health", even as successful GPs decide they literally can't carry on anymore, and choose a permanent solution to the problem of burnout.  While the low wages, in comparison to the cost of living, and long hours of many jobs are actually c...

(*names and features have been changed for privacy) GullRun Health Services are an independent healthcare provider, established as a Community Interest Company (CIC) who are looking to move away from their current business model, which is heavily dependent on NHS (National Health Service) commissioning.  GullRun want to move away from this model in order to establish a more visible presence in their local area, and also to avoid the significant payment lags that they are experiencing on many of their contracts - in some cases, it has been over a year since the service they were commissioned to provide started seeing patients, and they still haven’t received a single payment from the NHS. This is obviously having an impact on their ability to maintain a prudent level of reserve funding, and preventing them from addressing pressing healthcare needs within their communities. GullRun Health Services approached The Productive Pessimist Ltd, and requested a supported session working thro...