Polluting the Planet

‘Polluting the Planet’ is one of seven stories from our illustrated patient-centred collection called “Let’s talk differently about medicines”. We seek to contribute fresh understandings of medicines and introduce readers to polypharmacy as one example of medical overuse. The stories are designed to spark conversations between patients, family and clinicians and open up new avenues to discuss and address polypharmacy amongst older people. They resonate with a concern raised by Chief Medical Officer, Chris Whitty, in his 2023 annual report: ‘Improving quality of life in older age sometimes means less medicine, not more. It is essential that all patients, but especially those in later old age, are able to have realistic discussions with their doctors’.    The characters and stories featured in “Let’s talk differently about medicines” are fictional but are deeply grounded and inspired by the participants and findings of our ethnographic research on polypharmacy, conducted between 2017 and 2021 in patients’ homes, general practice and community pharmacy. Our research focused on patients aged 65 or older who were prescribed 10 or more items of regular medication (so called ‘higher risk’ polypharmacy). We engaged in a design-led methodology called Storytelling Group, working with patients in a process of co-design and user-testing which led to the creation of these resources.    This creative enquiry presentation will take the form of an oral storytelling. It will be accompanied by visual illustrations and will conclude with some reflective prompts to encourage engagement with the story and consideration of avenues for action. We will also show print copies of the illustrated collection.    ‘Polluting the Planet’ features Tom, a retired lorry driver who is an enthusiastic member of a community environmental group in his village and engaged in a re-wilding project. Tom reflects on his experiences of grief, his own health problems, his medical care and the people and places that matter to him, as the narrative explores the problem of waste as one consequence of polypharmacy and considers pharmaceuticals as a key contributor to the NHS’s carbon footprint. The story draws parallels between notions of care in the context of supporting environmental flourishing and notions of care for individual patients in supporting them to flourish and live well. It also engages with critical debates regarding polypharmacy as a symptom of mass consumption affecting both clinicians and patients and seeks to identify ways in which - by working together - clinicians and patients might make moves to shift the conversation and take steps to improve the situation.     This presentation is an invitation to experience the power of storytelling to promote collective revelation and make complex ideas accessible. We hope it will pique listeners’ curiosity and imagination as to the potential of storytelling within health improvement initiatives.