Participatory design principles to heal, not hinder: the importance of psychologically-informed environments

Theme: Participatory design principles

Women experiencing homelessness have worse access to healthcare and face higher rates of abuse and violence than the general population.

These women can play a key role in shaping health services to be more inclusive and equitable based on their lived experiences. However, researchers and designers often fail to create safe environments for individuals to authentically share their experiences, and this can lead to harm or re-traumatisation.

This talk will illustrate how creating a psychologically-informed environment can enable safe and authentic participation. It will also include a case study on how service users at the Marylebone Project (a London-based women’s homelessness service) used art to generate ideas for how to make healthcare more holistic and trauma-informed.

Participant takeaways:

• perspectives on the healthcare experiences of women experiencing homelessness and ideas for how to improve trust, inclusivity and accessibility
• guidance on creating psychologically-informed environments in research and design to enable safe and authentic participation for marginalised groups
• advice on forming equitable and reciprocal partnerships with third sector organisations for the design and delivery of service design projects