Session 3 - Campaign Development

Practitioner :

Inspired Youth

Session Aims:

• Review Campaign Progress
• Explore wider campaign themes
• Devise some 'key moments' to show stigma

For today's session we welcomed Dan Blackman who is a Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner in the Stockton area.   As we widened our scope to look at national campaign themes and the effects of stigma, Dan's insights from a clinical perspective were a really useful addition to the discussions.

We began the session by reviewing our progress along the campaign lifecycle and our reflections of the campaign so far.   We also took some time to read Jen Syrkiewicz' BLOG entry following last week's session.

Last week Jen helped us look at the conflict between talents, individuality & skills and the group's experience of stigma.   This led us nicely into looking more closely at public attitudes to mental illness.   We spread out sheets of paper over the tables each with a number or % on them, these numbers were the answers to a series of statements relating to public attitudes.   The statements were taken from a report published by the Department of Health called "Attitudes to Mental Illness 2008 Research Report".   The group had to debate the answers and match the figures to the statements.

Here are the statements:

 

• 12% of people agreed with the statement  “I would not want to live next door to someone who has been mentally ill” 

• Tolerant Attitudes are in decline, 92% had tolerant attitudes in 1994 whereas only 83% in 2008 

• 70% agree that the best therapy for many people with mental illness is to be part of a normal community 

• 63% Feel that people with mental illness should have the same rights to a job as anyone else 

• 17% agreed that “there is something about people with mental illness which makes it easy to tell them from normal people” 

• The youngest age group (16 to 34) had the most negative attitudes 

• 14% responded correctly that 1 in 4 people have experience of a mental health problem

Once we had discussed the scale of the problem the group began to look at the affects that stigma can have on an individual.   Dan Blackman helped the group to consider the effects that their experiences of stigma may have had.

After a while we began to see a cycle forming where one element would lead to further impact elsewhere in the cycle and so it would continue.   It was clear that the stigma related mental illness was making the problem worse for those who were living with the symptoms and effects.   It made clear how important our job had become in order to tackle some of these elements in the local community.

We then turned our attention to media processes and how to use media to tackle stigma.   First we looked at an example of a film designed to address the stigma of mental health.

We then looked at examples of Ciara Leeming's documentary work using still images and recorded narratives.

Ciara Leeming : Street Fighter Elijah

Ciara Leeming : Young Carers

We discussed a very simple three stage process by which we can devise a piece of media to do a job.   The process is based on advertising principles and works by distilling ideas down to key moments which can capture the audience.  

We looked at examples of different adverts that use key moments of humour, shock and intrigue to deliver powerful messages to the audience.   The best example is this advert for Nike Basketball.   

Not only does it play on stereotypes and the sense of brand belonging but it also challenges the judgements and preconceptions of the viewer.

Using the three stage principle, thinking about the affects of stigma & the idea of individual talents and keeping in mind the potential of the end product the group began to devise some key moments of their own.   The key moments would illustrate the things they wrote about last week with Jen and will give us material and ideas for the next sessions. 

Being Accused of Being Drunk:

Being Told Where to Go:

Shame on You:

Social Scene:

Jen Syrkiewicz - Mind Me

Inspiring stories about stigma: Stockton Mind Me

Last week, I helped out at a workshop run by Chris and Kev of Inspired Youth. We travelled to Stockton and met with some truly inspiring people who shared their stories of mental illness and stigma with us. In my capacity as a writer, I’ve been drafted in to support participants to craft their stories into an entwined narrative.

I’ve looked forward to the workshop since it was first mentioned to me, as battling the stigma of mental illness is something which is very important to me. However, despite preparing myself to hear the stories of the people in the room, I was taken aback by just how powerful their stories were, and how resilient, talented and courageous the people taking part in the workshop would turn out to be.

We started out by discussing the talents of the people in the room. We discussed how having a skill which we can turn to in our darkest times can really help with beating depression or the negative elements of mental health issues. Through baking, writing, lace making or painting, the people at the workshop express themselves creatively, proving their talent in the face of ongoing adversity.

We all know that one person in four suffers with some form of mental illness. We understand that people can find it difficult to face people with mental health problems. We know it makes people feel nervous, uncertain or unsure when they come in to contact with other people who suffer with depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s or Bipolar Disorder. The issue is, the less people speak about their illness, the less likely they are to be able to explain what it is like, how it feels, how it affects them. If they cannot speak about this, it will remain a taboo, and no-one will know how to manage it in our communities.

Speaking to people in the room, and gaining their perspectives on both their mental health, and other people’s responses to it, was an extremely emotional experience for me. More than feeling sadness that people have to go through the difficulties of mental health problems was the overwhelming sense of courage, resilience and bravery that each member of the group had when it came to facing up to their problems and finding ways to deal with them.

This workshop opened up my eyes. As someone with Bipolar I, I am lucky that I have faced very little prejudice about my illness. Perhaps this is because I at times lack courage to speak openly about it, or perhaps I am one of the few people blessed enough to have an amazing support network around me, who love me regardless. Meeting these amazing people in Stockton showed me just how much more work there is left to be done, to awaken society to the damage which stigma can cause, and show the ‘real’ side of the people who have mental health issues.

People who suffer from mental health problems are not weird, or odd, or frightening. They are of course different to the norm at times, just as a stamp collector or top athlete or someone who likes marmite and jam sandwiches is a little different to the norm. I hope that the work I do with Inspired Youth helps in some small way to show this, as it was very obvious to everyone in the group, as we spoke to the people involved in the Stockton Stigma project.

Whether we like it or not, stigma against people with mental health issues is still a strong, raw and ever-present element of our society. This is what Inspired Youth and the people who came along to the workshop are aiming to change.



Jen Syrkiewicz BLOG

Session 2 - Building a Narrative with Jen Syrkiewicz

Practitioners:

Inspired Youth & Jen Syrkiewicz

Session Aims:

• Meet Jen Syrkiewicz

• Explore Narrative Composition

• Create Narratives from Experience

After a quick review of the last session and a discussion about progress we took a moment to think again about the end product. As an example of some national campaign messages, we looked at the following two films:

The group reflected on how the films had placed and challenged the audience using different styles and techniques.

The group were then introduced to Jen Syrkiewicz.

Jen is a talented and experienced communications specialist who has published two novels and a volume of poetry. She runs a writing business and is also a trained Hypnotherapist, Counsellor and NLP Practitioner. She also volunteers at Mind in her spare time!

Jen's first novel "Gardening in the Dark" was written to raise awareness of Bipolar Affective Disorder and how the condition affects the lives of those who suffer from it and the lives of those around them.

It was Jen's task to help the group form a narrative stucture and elements for what will become a 'script' for the multimedia. The script will not only be used to record sound and voices for the final piece but will also give a direction for the photography elements.

Jen began by focussing on people's individual talents; what they felt they were good at, what they felt they were best at and also what they believed other people thought they were good at.

It was something that most people had not given much thought and we were amazed as group members passively spoke of incredible achievements such as being a headteacher at the age of 36, having poetry published and being a natural at working with lace!

After much discussion Jen then turned our attention to moments where the group had experienced stigma relating to mental health issues.

The group threw themselves into the task and began to describe a range of situations where they had been judged, discriminated against or misunderstood. The group came up with some very honest recollections and scenarios which had a range of effects on their feelings and behaviour. Being judged by a stranger or someone close and often in public had really affected their self-confidence and their feelings about their ability to cope with their difficulties.

Jen left the session with plenty of narrative material in order to present a structure back to the group using their words and ideas.   We look forward to seeing the results!

Experiences of Mental Health Problems and the Community

In order to explore our collective and individual experiences of mental health problems the group drew a series of figures.   The figures could represent themselves, someone they know or a combination of people.   

Outside the figure the group were asked to write experiences, scenarios, behaviours and other factors which contributed to their experience of mental health problems.   

Inside the figure the group were asked to write thoughts, feelings and responses to the external factors.   

We asked the group to focus on both positive things and negative things.   We will use the resulting characters to help us understand each other's experiences and also to build narratives for our multimedia piece.

Portraits

As a way of getting to know the group, we all drew portraits with a partner before having a chat and presenting that person to the rest of the group.

The only thing was... in order to draw the portrait you were not allowed to look at what you were drawing, only at the person you were drawing... There were some interesting results!