Upstream Dream is a neighbourhood for people who live with long-term illness, and for those who live and work alongside them.
We come together to share what works, make simple tools and bring about small changes that add up.
A neighbourhood does not have to be a place. Ours are made of people who share something: a diagnosis, a hospital ward, a stage of life.
what we do
We build community. Everything else grows out of that.
Living with long-term illness can wear down more than the body: trust, confidence, the sense of being heard. Among neighbours who know the terrain, people find their footing again. That is where we start, and it is what we protect.
From there the work goes in two directions.
Inward. We look after what holds a neighbourhood together: safety, honest conversation, time to heal, and fair ways of deciding things together.
Outward. When neighbours see something that could work better, we help turn it into a project. Small, practical, and owned by the people it concerns.
how we work
Our projects take place in three settings: at home, in the meeting with care, and around the table. Many of them use Genia, a self-care app where people hold their own information and decide who shares in it. Genia is developed by our partner companies Upstream Dream AB (Sweden) and Upstream Dream Inc (USA). Read more at genia.se and geniaapp.com.
At home
Families work out their own routines, tools and ways of keeping track of what matters. We help neighbours learn from each other, especially from those who have found something that works against the odds.
In the meeting with care
Families and care teams look together at how their meetings work, and try small changes. Information that the family holds can be shared with the care team when the family chooses to.
Around the table
This is where research happens. Neighbours, clinicians and researchers sit down together. Neighbours take part in deciding the questions, collecting the information and using the results.
why we do it
Because people thrive when they can care for themselves, and for each other.
Too often, health systems are built in ways that make people dependent rather than capable, and that wear down the people who work in them too. Upstream Dream works upstream, before crisis and before dependency, so that fewer crises happen downstream.
Our guiding belief is simple: neighbours helping neighbours, whether across the street or across the globe.
What we believe in practice:
Start with what works: We look for those who have already found better ways, and help others learn from them (positive deviance).
Your information is yours: You decide who shares in it. We don't impose change. We support it if you want it.
More democracy in health: Those affected have a seat where care and research are shaped.
Outcomes that matter: self-determination, wellbeing, dignity, and love, power and justice.
Fair and independent: Low thresholds for taking part, and simple rules that protect the community's independence.