1. Participatory Video Approaches to Mental Health Rob Whitley, Stephanie Young, Gavin Adamson

2. What is Participatory Video (PV)?  It is a bottom-up method of making videos  It is always a group activity  It works best with pre-existing and marginalized groups  It is also known as the ‘Fogo process’  It takes advantage of the new ‘visual culture’

3. PV follows six steps 1) Form a fluid workgroup of interested individuals 2) Raise ‘critical consciousness’ about issues through a discussion and practice of analytical thinking 3) Group is trained in video scripting, filming and editing 4) The group produces informative documentary-type videos that often run counter to the dominant narrative 5) Videos are shown to carefully chosen audiences 6) Research, in the form of process and outcome evaluation, can occur along each step of the way (optional but desirable)

4. Current Project: Background  News coverage of people with mental illness tends to be negative, often focusing on violence, criminality and danger  A minority of articles focus on interventions or recovery  The ‘Mental Health Strategy for Canada’ states that priority 1.1 must be to ‘increase awareness and reduce stigma’ (MHCC 2012: p22)  As such we started a new project…  “Stopping the Stigma: Creating and Assessing an Anti- Stigma and Pro-Recovery Educational Intervention using Participatory Video with People with Mental Illness”

5. Stopping the Stigma  Funded by CIHR for three years (thank you!) began October 2014:  Three sites: Forward House (Montreal) Sound Times (Toronto) Laing House (Halifax)  A skilled videographer trains people with M.I to script, film and produce educational videos to reduce stigma and promote recovery  These videos will be disseminated to select target audiences, and impact on audience as well as participants will be evaluated through qualitative and quantitative methods.

6. Case Study – Halifax  Introduction to Laing House  Young (ages 16-29), tech-savvy group of participants  Lots of natural peer-support and knowledge-sharing  Two completed projects, four more in various stages of production

7. Case Study – Halifax  Colours of the Street (2015, run time 00:14:39)  Portrait doc of a Laing member highlighting his art practice  First completed film, collaborative group project  In-house screening December 2015  The documentary has also been screened to Quebec schools  https://vimeo.com/147016220 https://vimeo.com/147016220

8. Outreach  By the end of the process, each site will have at least four videos produced (thus 12 in total)  These will be uploaded to the internet  Videos will be shown to the following target groups in organized screenings followed by facilitated discussion: School and university students Health care providers Employers Mental health support groups The general public (please let us know if interested in hosting an organized screening)

9. Looking ahead...  We will evaluate audience impact using qualitative and quantitative methods.  We will write academic papers summarizing the project  We will create a PV workbook and toolkit to help other people trying to implement similar projects  We hope to help create and train other PV groups of people with M.I. in other cities across Canada and beyond (if interested please contact us)

10. Thank you/ Merci robert.whitley@mcgill.ca stephanieyoungart@gmail.com gavin.adamson@ryerson.ca www.youtube.com/user/recoverymentalhealth http://www.douglas.qc.ca/page/recovery-about