Meet the Story Fellow: Anna Suschitzky
Anna Suschitzky is a freelance Storytelling Facilitator based in Wales. Her experience working within the third sector as an advocate, campaigner and project lead as well as her research-based practice with autobiographical performance, have led to a passion for the transformative power of storytelling. Facilitating digital story workshops within community, health and social care settings she has worked to harness stories and amplify voices of people who have often been ignored. Her work with Social Care Wales, the George Ewart Evans Centre for Storytelling and Swansea University’s DEEP programme have cemented her commitment to the use of stories for wellbeing, connection and social change.
Anna’s experiences working with diverse groups within community, health and social care settings have expanded her skills in creating safe spaces and building trust with individuals. Taking care to safeguard participant well-being, Anna’s facilitation skills encourage play, curiosity and deep listening. With a strong understanding of the ethical dimensions of storytelling, including consent, and ownership, Anna works to ensure that participants’ voices are centred throughout the process. Working across Wales, Anna has supported organisations to understand how stories might be utilised to understand impact and ensure that lived experience shape and improve services.
The Challenge:
Anna is working in collaboration with Cardiff Met and Cardiff & Vale University Health Board. With advances in Cystic Fibrosis (CF) therapies extending life expectancy and improving quality of life, more people with CF are now considering family planning. This shift has highlighted a critical need for accessible information on reproductive health choices. Engaging with people living with CF to create their own digital stories, Anna aims to explore whether storytelling can provide a valuable method to support people living with CF and their families in making informed decisions about their sexual and reproductive health. These stories will be used to develop educational resources designed to support shared decision making between people living with CF and their CF care teams.
Anna’s first steps:
Practical and bureaucratic challenges have meant a slow start to the project. Anna has used this time to gain a broader understanding of the Cystic Fibrosis landscape, scoping what is already happening and exploring existing stories from people living with Cystic Fibrosis.
Anna has been building connections and relationships with key stakeholders, including clinicians, researchers and third sector organisations supporting people with Cystic Fibrosis.
The project aims to support people living with cystic fibrosis (CF) to share their experiences through digital storytelling, fostering a deeper understanding within the healthcare system. Working with the Illustration team at Cardiff Met University, the digital stories will inform the creation of resources to support conversations and decision-making around reproductive choices. Aiming to create a supportive, participatory space where patients, service providers and clinicians collaborate to enhance patient involvement and improve care pathways.
Interested in how stories can be used to assist in healthcare? Why not see how Story Fellow ____ is tackling this problem.
Meet another Story Fellow partnered with Cardiff Metropolitan University: Marsha O’Mahony
Have a look at some of the our Fellows who have reached the end of their projects: _____
