Feelgood Fashion Creative Workshops

The Feelgood Fashion creative workshops programme is a series of friendly, informal fashion-focused workshops for young people (aged 14-18) who have an eating disorder, an eating problem or a difficult relationship with food and body image. The Feelgood Fashion creative workshops will take place, free of charge, at Liverpool School of Art and Design during the School holidays – an acknowledged period of risk for young eating disorder patients.

Participants can:

• Engage in enjoyable fashion-focused activities in a safe, supportive environment
• Learn more about fashion in a positive way
• Produce creative outcomes (fashion photographs, fashion illustrations, textile pieces, CAD-based images, fashion film, creative writing, memes, website)
• Create a supportive network
• Engage in fashion activism activities to bring about positive change

The Feelgood Fashion creative workshops are being provided as part of an arts and health research project called Fashion on Prescription. Fashion on Prescription is an arts-on-prescription [***embed link]: What is an Arts on Prescription programme? FAQ research project being developed by  Arts and Health researchers and Fashion lecturers at Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU), in partnership with North West Boroughs Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (NWBH).

The Fashion on Prescription project was initiated by Carol Ryder, Senior Lecturer in Fashion, and Arts and Health researcher at Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU), and Dr. Sandeep Ranote, Medical Director at North West Boroughs Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (NWBH). Dr. Ranote highlighted the need for socially prescribed creative activities to be made available, alongside clinical care, to improve the health and wellbeing of young people (14-18 years) with eating disorders.

In recent years socially prescribed, ‘Arts on Prescription’ initiatives have shown excellent ‘whole person’ benefits for those experiencing mental health problems, including raising self-esteem, improving self-confidence, providing a sense of purpose, increasing levels of empowerment, helping people engage in social relationships and friendships, and enhancing social skills and community integration.

The Fashion on Prescription research project aims to provide positive, fashion-focused creative activities, free of charge, to young people with eating disorders during school holidays, an acknowledged period of risk for young eating disorder patients.

Arts on Prescription – sometimes known as Arts on Referral – is a type of social prescribing which provides non-clinical, group-based creative programmes for participants, particularly for those experiencing mental health problems.

The therapeutic effects of the arts have been recognised for many centuries – engaging with the arts can supplement medicine and other care for people with health problems (physical or mental). In addition, it can build mental wellbeing, which can lead to a wide range of benefits including improved physical health, educational performance and, importantly, increased ability to cope with life and its problems.

In recent years socially prescribed, ‘Arts on Prescription’ initiatives have shown excellent ‘whole person’ benefits for those experiencing mental health problems, including raising self-esteem, improving self-confidence, providing a sense of purpose, increasing levels of empowerment, helping people engage in social relationships and friendships, and enhancing social skills and community integration. (All-Party Parliamentary Group on Arts, Health and Wellbeing Inquiry Report (2017)

A team of qualified, experienced fashion lecturers and arts and health researchers will facilitate the workshops, alongside the young people themselves. An important aspect of both the Feelgood Fashion workshop programme and the Fashion on Prescription research project is the aim to empower the young people in the group to make their own decisions about what activities should be part of the workshops programme – for example, creative activities, watching films, meeting creative practitioners and fashion experts, or other activities suggested by the young people in the group. The opinions, advice, and ideas of the young people themselves will therefore be central to the design, delivery, development, and evaluation of the programme of workshops.

Additional help may be provided by LJMU students and volunteers if needed. From time to time, visiting speakers or creative practitioners may also join us for a specific activity or event.

The Feelgood Fashion workshops will take place at the John Lennon Art and Design Building, which houses Liverpool School of Art and Design, and is located in Liverpool’s Knowledge Quarter at 2 Duckinfield Street, Liverpool L3 5RD.

The Fashion on Prescription research project, and Feelgood Fashion workshops programme will be co-produced with stakeholders and in consultation with a psychiatric team from North West Boroughs Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (NWBH) who have specific expertise in the treatment of eating disorders, and the Research and Development team at NWBH.

The Feelgood Fashion workshops will take place in the John Lennon Art and Design Building, which houses Liverpool School of Art and Design. This is a public building with first aiders on hand and equipped with essential health and safety equipment.

You may accompany your Daughter/ Son/ Ward to the Feelgood Fashion workshops if you wish and join other Parents & Guardians in a nearby breakout area where light refreshments will be provided for you. In this way, you will be near your Daughter/ Son/ Ward to ensure their safety and wellbeing while they attend the workshops, although we hope that, as the programmes develop, the young people in the group will develop supportive relationships and networks amongst themselves and gradually become more socially independent.

While the team of qualified, experienced fashion lecturers and arts and health researchers who facilitate the workshops are not medically qualified, the Principal Researcher, Carol Ryder, is a mental health first aider, trained in mental health skills and awareness, having completed Mental Health First Aid Training with MHFA England This course teaches in depth skills for providing first aid to people who may be experiencing mental health issues such as depression, anxiety and psychosis.

Yes. We will provide refreshments and a breakout area for Parents and Guardians at each workshop so you can stay close to your young person if you – and they – wish. This may also allow you to develop a support network with other Parents and Guardians in a similar situation to yourself.

No – no diagnosis is necessary for your Daughter, Son or Ward to be able to join the Feelgood Fashion creative workshops. If they are aged 14-18 years, in the early stages of an eating disorder, are recovering from an eating disorder, have an eating problem or a difficult relationship with food and body image, they are welcome to join us!

If you are unsure about whether they have an eating problem, please see the information about eating problems provided by Mind, a charity that promotes better mental health. Whatever their situation, you – or they – do not need to provide any evidence of an eating disorder diagnosis.

The Feelgood Fashion workshops are a non-clinical programme of creative workshops, designed to provide an informal, safe space for young people with eating disorders or who have a difficult relationship with food and body image, where they can engage in enjoyable, creative activities and meet other young people in a similar situation. The Feelgood Fashion workshops are not intended to replace clinical care, but rather to provide additional ‘whole person’ benefits for the young people who engage with the programme, for example raising self-esteem, improving self-confidence, providing a sense of purpose, increasing levels of empowerment, helping people engage in social relationships and friendships, and enhancing social skills and community integration.

The therapeutic effects of the arts have been recognised for many centuries – engaging with the arts can supplement medicine and other care for people with health problems (physical or mental). In addition, it can build mental wellbeing, which can lead to a wide range of benefits including improved physical health, educational performance and, importantly, increased ability to cope with life and its problems.

A fashion-focus to the workshops is considered appropriate to the participant-group of young people: ‘to get health-promotion messages across to young people will be difficult if they do not consider such messages as being relevant to them.’ (Bungay and Vella-Burrows 2013 p. 45).

While many young people are interested in fashion and image, fashion itself can be considered problematic in relation to problems with body image and disordered eating. The widely-promoted ‘fashionable body (tall, thin, young, predominantly white, able-bodied and heterosexually-presenting) has been shown to give rise to body dissatisfaction which, in turn, has been shown to be a factor in the onset of eating disorders.

The Feelgood Fashion team believe that if young people are interested in fashion, it is important that they are able to engage with fashion in an enjoyable, but well-informed and responsible way.

During a programme of fashion / textiles / art focused activities, the Feelgood Fashion team aim to promote a more critical approach to the fashion industry and fashion media, encouraging young people to embrace the idea of joyful, inclusive fashion alongside sustainable practices and social responsibility.

The Feelgood Fashion creative workshops are free of charge. Light, buffet-style refreshments and essential fashion / textile / art materials and equipment will also be provided, free of charge, by the workshop organisers. Related costs to you might include travel expenses, additional materials if you, or your Daughter / Son / Ward wish to purchase them for a particular project, or specific dietary requirements.

Yes, Light, buffet-style refreshments will be available, free of charge, for the young people and their Parents if they want them, but there will be no pressure at all to eat or drink. Your Daughter, Son or Ward they are also welcome to bring their own food and drink if they wish.