Are you looking for inspiring health and social care resources for training or service improvement activities? We create bespoke films that incorporate video clips from the national collection of service user experiences that appear on healthtalk.org and socialcaretalk.org.

Combined, the sites host more than 30,000 video clips from qualitative research interviews about personal experiences of health and social care issues, which make for authentic and insightful teaching resources. However, they can have even greater impact when compiled into longer-format films with:

• Professional voiceover
• Titles, captions and subtitles
• Still images
• Tasteful background music
• Newly filmed interviews with professionals
• Animations

See our collection of films or get in touch with the Dipex Charity team to discuss making your own film.

Training films

Our training films are a great way to explain complex health and social care topics to students, professionals and the public in an engaging way.

We created a series of films for professionals and parents to communicate new guidance about babies who are born too early to survive. We worked with Professor Lucy Smith at Leicester University to combine parent interviews from another healthtalk.org project led by Prof. Smith, losing a pregnancy at 20–24 weeks, with bespoke animations, explanations by professionals (filmed by Dipex), a professional voiceover, music and titles.

The films have been incredibly well-received by professionals working in the field, including a conference of 300 obstetricians and midwives.

What are service improvement films?

Service-improvement films, also described as ‘accelerated experience-based co-design’ (AEBCD).** or ‘catalyst’ films, feature a series of patient-experience interviews punctuated by talking points for service-users and providers exploring how to improve services.

Studies have shown that these films are a cost-effective way to inspire practical ideas for changes that lead to tangible improvements in service*, and that these changes are comparable with those that come about through local user groups.**

Examples of improvements made following the use of catalyst films include:

• Implementation of changes to reduce noise levels in intensive care units, such as posters encouraging quieter conversations and phone ringtones, and soft-close bins
• Installation of clocks on wards, to help patients feel less confused
• Identification of specific training needs for nurses
• Introduction of a policy for written summaries of consultations to be sent to patients electronically or by post
• Establishment of a patient support group.

Furthermore, one study found that the issues raised in the film didn’t need to be directly relevant to those watching the film. Just watching the film compelled people to consider and discuss what changes they could make:

Furthermore, one study found that the issues raised in the film didn’t need to be directly relevant to those watching the film. Just watching the film helped people to think about, and discuss, what changes they should make.

“The purpose of the films.. is simply to ‘trigger’ discussion and enable people to share ideas and concerns; then joint work to redesign care can begin. If [films based on a national set of interviews] are ‘good enough’ to initiate such conversations, local specifics can be brought into discussion along the way, and even disagreement with the content can generate productive discussion” Locock et al (2014)***

We have a vast range of short films already available to use or embed in presentations. Alternatively you can contact us to talk about working together to create a new film.

*Darbyshire, JL, Hinton, L (2018) Using patient narratives to design an intervention to reduce noise in the intensive care unit. Journal of Health Design. 2018;3(2):109–112.

**Locock et al (2014) Testing accelerated experience-based co-design: a qualitative study of using a national archive of patient experience narrative interviews to promote rapid patient-centred service improvement. Health Services and Delivery Research. 2 (4)

***Locock et al (2014) Using a national archive of patient experience narratives to promote local patient-centered quality improvement: an ethnographic process evaluation of ‘accelerated’ experience-based co-design. Journal of Health Services Research and Policy. 19 (4)