Wearing Well-Being: Co-Creative and Textile-Based Approaches to Enhancing Palliative Care

Abstract

Few forms of human behavior are more pervasive than the use of textiles. As shelter and clothing, textile products play a vital role in meeting basic human needs. Clothes are imbued with memories, intertwined with our histories and identities, interwoven into the “fabric of our lives.” In late-stage eldercare/assisted living scenarios, care priorities often shift from curative measures to palliative care for the relief of pain, symptoms and emotional stress. Palliative care is available at any stage of an illness. The purpose of this exploratory creative study is to better understand opportunities applying co-creative design approaches in late-stage eldercare through the development of wearable narratives. We develop a form of garment therapy, imprinted with a unique textile print that is visual, tactile and empowering to the user/creator. The design researchers adopted context mapping as a method to engage participants in creative, idea generating activities to help inform textile design processes. Context mapping empowers participants by allowing them to make collaged artefacts and then tell stories about what they have made. As designers, we seek to delineate textiles as a therapeutic modality in its own right, a form of expression that can be used as a therapeutic intervention to foster well-being. We view this creative design exploration as an entry point into broader interdisciplinary opportunities. In this way, the project aligns with emerging models that attempt to address important societal and cultural problems through practice, by design.