Exploring Links between Mental Health and Community using Digital Media

A Darychuk1 & N Fazal1

Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto

ABS1994

Program Description

Background

Mental health and community are reinforcing concepts; thus, investing in one leads to an investment in the other. This innovative exploratory study focuses on the links between mental health and community, and the ways in which these topics are important and resonate with youth across the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) in Canada.

This program evaluation aimed to explore the value of an arts-based tool for educational programming related to community-based issues among youth in the GTA. In particular, to provide participant feedback and insight for current and future programming provided by InterChange – a diverse group of peace-builders who share knowledge and programming practices in order to promote peace in communities in Canada and abroad.

Aim of Evaluation

InterChange partnered with the Toronto LAMP Community Health Centre to run a pilot workshop series on digital storytelling with youth aged 14-18 from the South Etobicoke Youth Assembly in order to explore ideas around mental health and community. 14 Participants were provided with computers and guidance to write their own story and create an audiovisual product, and 7 completed their own 60 second digital story. At the final workshop, participants were invited to share their digital stories at a community screening, and to engage in a broader discussion with their peers on the theme of mental health and community.

Evaluation Methods

Data Collection: Ethics was obtained from the University of Toronto Research Ethics Board to conduct semi-structured interviews with participants aged 17-20. Interviews are ongoing; to date, three have been completed. Interviews focus on participants’ learnings from the workshop series, and their impressions about the use of digital storytelling as a health promotion programming tool.

Data Analysis: A preliminary data analysis has been completed, and some key themes have emerged related to process and content. Codes emerged based on an iterative process which examines themes within the data, and uses these as analytic groupings.

Preliminary Evaluation Findings

Reflections for Future Health Promotion Programming For community settings with accessible technology, investing in digital storytelling can be an effective arts-based tool used to engage young people in exploring community-based issues, learning new skills in digital media, and developing leadership capacity in their communities.

THEME QUOTE

Digital Storytelling as a Tool

“Through pictures and videos, you can explore different concepts, different perspectives of people’s lives, how they feel, and how they truly want to express themselves.”

Relationship between Mental

Health and Community

“So like, the community are the people around us who we see on a daily basis. So, the way they treat us – and they treat other people, like – it really defines [...] your mental health.”

Mental Health Awareness:

“I know before that a lot of people would be like, ‘oh that’s so retarded’ or ‘why are you being so bipolar?’ and stuff like that. And I saw that [...] from this program [...] people stopped saying that.”

Definitions of Community

“Community can be a group of friends, a place, it can be anything that makes you feel together like a team. It can really help one person’s mind develop and learn something new.”

Digital Storytelling in Health Promotion References:• Sawyer, C., and Willis, J. (2011). Using Digital Storytelling to Influence the Behavior of Children and Adolescents. Journal of Creativity in Mental Health, 6:274–283.• Taub-Pervizpour, L. (2009) Digital Storytelling with Youth, in Story Circle: Digital Storytelling around the World (eds J. Hartley and K. McWilliam), Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford, UK.

Acknowledgements: We would like to thank the LAMP Community Health Centre staff, the South Etobicoke Youth Assembly, and workshop participants from the Etobicoke neighbourhood.