Lack of blogs doesn’t mean lack of action here at Snook! We have been amazingly busy with so many projects that we have struggled to find the time to blog. We are excited to have been accepted to present papers at a few high level conferences this autumn.

Sarah will be presenting a paper entitled ‘Moving Beyond the Consultancy Model: Strengthening Design Approaches for Public Good’ at the Design Management Institute conference in September http://www.dmi.org/?page=ADMC2014

This is a paper that we have written with our client, Trevor Lakey, Health Improvement & Inequalities Manager with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. Trevor has a focus on Mental Health, Alcohol & Drugs, and we have recently completed an innovative co-design project for NHSGGC with Young Scot and Mental Health Foundation, www.wegot99.com In this paper we reflect on the learnings from this project, and on the need for new forms of commissioning partnerships and processes to evolve between design agencies and statutory public bodies that allow the space for design driven innovation to flourish.

Valerie (along with the rest of the RITA team) will be showcasing the RITA project (www.rita.me.uk) at the King’s Fund International Digital Health and Care Congress, also in September. http://www.kingsfund.org.uk/events/international-digital-health-and-care-congress Their paper, ‘Developing a digital advocate & care service with an empathetic heart and a medical mind’, will draw on psychological research and service user feedback, to demonstrate, by way of interactive vignettes, how RITA will work and the types of support she can offer.

Valerie will be presenting another paper focused on the RITA project ‘Exploring a technological framework to support control and Conservation of Resources through cognitive decline’ at the Alzheimer’s Europe conference in Glasgow in October. The theme for this conference is Dignity and Autonomy in Dementia, and the RITA service model fits well into this theme, as it is designed to support older people to remain independent for as long as they can.