An exploration of movement- & community-based interventions for wellbeing

For my Creative Health master’s (MASc) dissertation project, I partnered with the Castlehaven Community Association to carry out primary research relating to movement- and community-based interventions for health and wellbeing.

Firstly, my research sought to examine the impact of a Yoga & Mindfulness class taking place at Castlehaven, aimed at women with depression and anxiety, and which is also accessible on social prescription. Secondly, I aimed to explore social prescribing as an additional pathway through which more vulnerable individuals might access support as well as take part in health and wellbeing activities at the centre. Limited insight into the perspectives of social prescribing referrals, or service-users, was obtained. As a result, this strand of the research drew largely on the experiences of staff members at Castlehaven to consider the practicalities, challenges and opportunities involved in adopting social prescribing at the centre.

Collage produced by one of the participants who attended the group collage session.

In addition to carrying out an extensive literature review, I employed qualitative research methods to explore the above research aims. This included taking a participatory, arts-based approach to data collection, which involved facilitating a group collage session for attendees of Yoga & Mindfulness. During the session, participants were prompted to capture and discuss their experiences of Yoga & Mindfulness through the use of collage. Their observations and experiences were later explored in more detail during follow-up, semi-structured interviews. Semi-structured interviews were also carried out with Castlehaven staff. The resulting datasets were analysed using Reflexive Thematic Analysis, and the findings were visualised using diagrams.

Themes and sub-themes capturing attendees’ experience of Yoga & Mindfulness, and how it has positively influenced their health & wellbeing

Venn diagram illustration the distribution of themes across spatiotemporal domains

Where the effects of Yoga & Mindfulness are concerned, the findings indicated the diverse, far-reaching and interconnected ways the class positively affected participants’ health and wellbeing – spanning physical, psychological, emotional and social shifts. This highlights the value of offering mind-body practices such as yoga in community settings and on prescription, so that more vulnerable and disadvantaged populations, who have much to gain from these practices, are able to access and engage with them.

The findings also demonstrated the manifold, interwoven challenges and opportunities associated with integrating social prescribing at Castlehaven. While echoing learnings from previous studies, my research contributed new insight into how social prescribing might benefit from being embedded in existing, well-established community settings. The research outputs are being used to inform Castlehaven’s continued adoption of social prescribing, and to shape future interventions that, like Yoga & Mindfulness, might seek to address individuals’ health and wellbeing more holistically. The feedback I have since received from my tutors at UCL has been strongly positive, who awarded my dissertation a distinction. 

Themes and sub-themes capturing the challenges and opportunities involved in adopting the social prescribing model at Castlehaven

To access my dissertation in its entirety, please email me at: renata.bitt92@gmail.com