With many of our systems and services under strain, the second panel talk at Brighton Wellness Festival’s Summit, addressed ways we can make them work better for us and for the communities they serve.

 

Titled The Tides of Change - How can we disrupt the systems making us sick? host, Ariana Alexander-Sefre (founder of SPOKE, delivering mental healthcare through music), was joined by a panel of changemakers thinking about just this. 

 

She began by talking about the relationship between the system and the individual. “When a system breaks - education, healthcare, media - it’s the individual that takes the brunt. We then focus on individual solutions, rather than systemic ones.”

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Ariana stressed the need to focus on the systems rather than the symptoms, prioritising being well in the first place, instead of waiting to cure the illness. It’s explained clearly in the river analogy, of how society is focused on “helping people out of the bottom of the river rather than addressing who is pushing them in, upstream”. 

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The panel spoke about how the systems had failed them personally and where they had turned instead.

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Wellness entrepreneur, Camille Pierson, opened the ‘Float Spa’ in Hove in 2015, after surviving for years as a highly-stressed, over-worked mum. She ended up having a breakdown: “I didn’t understand burnout, no one spoke about it back then… The system was broken for me. I didn’t want talking therapies, traditional routes. Flotation helped me unravel my brain, which worked for me.”

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Richard Husseiny, founder of Men Behind Sport, worked for sixteen years as a high performance coach, training top athletes and attending several Olympic Games. When his mum fell terminally ill with cancer, he dropped everything to care for her. For him it was the start of a “fundamental shift in my life. I fell out of love with sport, saw the cracks I was blind to.” 

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Richard saw medals and winning prioritised over wellbeing. Perhaps not surprising since sport is competitive by nature, but for Richard: “From the outside, sport looks really shiny, but there’s a dis-function in it. Sport is broken like many systems.”

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Yet sportspeople individually are great role models. Richard says research shows they have more influence over us than politicians. He sees them as an “untapped way of how to change sport to serve the world - transform into joy, connection.” 

 

Ryan Lakhan-Bunbury (founder of Calm That Anxiety), uses his background in the corporate world to confront these issues in the workplace head on. “They [corporations] have the power and resources to change things, I persuade them to tackle these challenges.”

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Toni Finnimore, (founder of The Social Society), spent 25 years managing community services, including for the NHS. “I loved it, everything from advocating getting crisps in hospital shops, to end of life care… but saw huge gaps in government services.” 

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Toni saw how local grassroots charities were stepping up to fill the gaps, but without the support they needed. So in 2018 she set up ‘The Social Society - bringing people together to do good.’

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“I’m not moving, I'm going to keep banging on that NHS door. I'm putting my stake in the ground, getting on the soap box and staying there.”

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The panel also discussed financial and cultural barriers to wellness spaces. At the Float Spa, Camille offers 2 days a month where people pay what they can. And when Ariana’s brother rejected counselling after his friend committed suicide at fifteen, she saw first-hand how “our systems don’t work for everyone.”

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But there are initiatives working to fix this, said Richard. In the US, The Savannah Bananas have transformed Baseball, by changing the rules, making the game faster-paced, involving the audience, and creating more of a carnival atmosphere with music and dance routines. 

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Through The Social Society, Toni curates festival team days for businesses, often entailing discussions around the fire pit, building connection and community. “Sometimes it’s not about innovation, but co-creation within local communities.” 

 

Ryan and Ariana spoke about looking at other cultures. 

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Ariana: “[Talking] therapy is only approved in the West, in our culture. In other cultures, therapy wouldn’t work. They lean on their communities in the way we don’t.”

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Ryan: “A few years ago, seeing mindfulness on an NHS website would have been laughed at, now it’s a viable option…”

 

Concluding the talk, two audience members referenced community choirs that they are involved in. “Singing is amazing,” said one. “We are here to gather. Sometimes we soothe ourselves by being intellectual. Have a pie and chat and meet people, it's not complicated, share a meal, have a dance, sing. I didn’t realise how important community is.” 

 

Many ambitious ideas were discussed in a short space of time, but with practical ways we can work towards making a difference, the summit’s second panel talk was an enlightening and inspiring call to action.

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