Isn’t That Something

by Dr. Jane Myat

When a group of us (staff, patients and other members of our local community) started our
community garden in the centre of our general medical practice, now called the Listening
Space, we wanted to share stories and ask questions. Driven outside by the increasingly stifling
atmosphere inside our now industrialised healthcare system, I was motivated by a passion, a
mixture of rage and love, of frustration and desire, to express something different about what
health and care could be. As time has gone by and the initial blaze has quieted to a warming
glow, a space has opened up, permitting us to look into the seeming darkness and allowing
things that are essential to come into focus. These embers tell the story of why we came to be
proud participants of the Patient Revolution instigated by Professor Victor Montori

 After twenty-five years working as a primary care physician, I am grateful, privileged and
humbled to have been able to meet and hear the stories, hopes, and the dreams of so many
wonderful and different people, through my work both inside the consulting room and now in the outdoor one we have in our garden space. And I have learnt many lessons in these spaces,
particularly about reciprocity in relationships, of embracing surprise and about what it is to be
human.

An opportunity arose for our Listening Space project in the last year via a small grant obtained by our GP federation from UCL Partners. The purpose: could we help tell a story of what we might do within the medical system, to replenish the soil on which we stand? We know that many working in healthcare are feeling starved of energy; they might just be surviving but certainly not thriving. How can that be a good recipe to play our part as healers? How can we give of ourselves to others when there is little left to sustain us?

We had been asking these questions in our green space and living our way into the answers for the last few years. Our beautiful, productive, nourishing garden did not arise from following algorithms, protocols or spreadsheets. It grew- through building real relationships, the to and fro of giving and receiving. We learnt through noticing things about ourselves, through our interactions with each other and from all the teaching the natural world has to offer if we pay attention. We have made mistakes but try to learn from them, bouncing back, healing, mending. It is a dynamic dance we have crafted between us. Through this process we repair and weave the light and the dark into a rich cloak of a community around the practice: a coming together of heads, hearts and hands

In order to tell something of our story, we rebuilt the website for our ‘project’ as a window into
our small part of the world. We hope it is one way of sharing the seeds of our endeavours and in case it may encourage you to grow something of your own. Everyone loves a garden on a
sunny day when it is full of flowers. The flowers come from soil. The soil comes from
composting, from breakdown, decomposition, from what has been gone before. The plants
come from seeds, germinating in the darkness, growth, we now know, helped by networks of
mycelium. They flourish and grow tall when their roots dig deep. Growth in gardens like growth
in communities takes time, is complex in its interactions and powered by the exchange of energy. In sharing our story, we are asking you to ask yourself: “What if I look at the ground on
which I am standing, where am I, what have I around me and what is the smallest thing I can do to make a start to replenish this soil?”

We have resourced much of our project through the gift economy, assuming abundance rather than scarcity, playing as if we have what we need in order to bring our imaginings into being. There’s a freedom in that - a freedom from the world of data and metrics which can capture and control and which had driven us outside in the first place - but not a freedom from responsibility and mutual obligation to and for each other.

We were aware with the offer of funding that an evaluation would be required. But how could we do this within the spirit of what we have been doing? How do you measure an atmosphere
created? How do you weigh a soul?

We were honoured to receive a visit from Victor Montori, Professor of Medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, author of more than 500 scientific papers and founder of the Patient Revolution. In his book (which I urge you to read) “Why We Revolt”, Victor tells us:  

“Loss of integrity may be the original sin that ended up corrupting healthcare away from its fundamental mission of caring. Loss of integrity manifested by incoherence and contradictions between expressed values and actions in industrialised health”.

So how could we keep the integrity of what we have been doing?

We have been building a relationship and learning much from the local charity, Global Generation (GG). This last year or so we have walked together both literally and metaphorically, groups of staff and patients taking part in “Story Walks” between our Listening Space garden and GG’s Story Garden in Kings Cross, finding paths and laying down steps through the green spaces in Camden. As a result of our collaborations, some in our community took part in GG’s Voices of the Earth Project, helping to contribute to a book, a soundscape and an exhibition. These were beautiful and rich ways of telling stories, allowing different kinds of intelligence to live in a reciprocal relationship with each other.

Inspired by this enquiry, we were delighted that the good people representing UCL Partners
were open to our story being told in different ways by local young people who were involved with GG. They became our community action researchers. I have been moved by the film and pieces of writing produced by Cassie, Lucy and Maedeh; telling us what they heard, saw and sensed in the Listening Space, what they have taken in, considered, and taken with them. Through their participation, the work between us has been expansive and generative, contributing to new growth of connections, relationships and capabilities.

As humans it has been creativity and working together that have allowed us to address
collective problems. Few can doubt that we have reached a turning point where there are many challenges ahead of us, rising demand for health services, increasing division in our societies and the need to adapt to living in a climate-changed world. We need to embrace all the rich and varied ways of knowing, to cultivate and allow creative emergence. This does not mean starting from nothing but as a process of synthesis: looking at what we have, what we neglect and waste then combining the ingredients to make something new. The vision for the Patient Revolution is that:

“Health care will leave the smallest possible footprint on people’s lives. Few people will need it because the patient revolution will focus on health, on the ability of people to fulfill their roles and pursue their hopes and dreams. They will pursue this goal by working to improve environments, enhance the meaning of work, strengthen relationships and reduce poverty, insecurity and inequality.”

So this is our contribution to the great work ahead of us all. One of the lessons the pandemic teaches is the possibility that something microscopic and invisible can change the way we live. Whether we like it or not we are all interconnected on our small, huge, beautiful, fierce and fragile planet.

I

Like it when

The music happens like this:

Something in his eyes grabs hold of a tambourine in me

Then I turn and lift a violin in someone else

And they turn and this turning continues

It has reached you now

Isn't that something

Rumi

Read Jane Riddifords’s piece, Dancing In The Shadows

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Do you have a story to share?

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