Applied Drama and Mental Health in North Belfast
Lead Research Organisation:
Queen's University Belfast
Department Name: Sch of Law
Abstract
This proposal aims to build on a pilot project led by freelance applied drama facilitator, Jason Hines, with the guidance and advice of David Grant, Lecturer in Drama at Queen's University Belfast, through which a Men's Group associated with the Lighthouse organisation in North Belfast developed a short performance to highlight the importance of mental health issue for them and their peers. The Lighthouse is a voluntary organisation based at an 'interface' area (on the boundary of a Catholic and a Protestant area) which provides support for people affected by suicide. Studies show that suicide is prevalent in the area, especially among middle-aged males (e.g. Tomlinson, M. (2012) 'War, Peace and Suicide: The Case of Northern Ireland', International Sociology ) amid the continuing social and political tensions associated with the protracted Peace Process. Jason has worked in a voluntary capacity with the Lighthouse since the suicide a school friend several years ago, and was invited by them to introduce some drama-based interventions with one of their user-groups. The success of the pilot has encouraged them to develop this work, but the expansion of the work requires greater input from David Grant and funding to sustain Jason's work on a professional basis for a six month period.
There is a long history of community-based drama projects in Belfast, but the use of interactive applied drama techniques is less well developed (Grant, D. 'Ripples in the Pond: Community drama and the development of interactive theatre in Northern Ireland' (2006) in Michael Balfour (ed.) Drama as Social Intervention). The Lighthouse are well established in the city as a vital resource for people in extreme need, but they welcome the opportunity to extend their range of working methods to include drama.
The proposal therefore aims to connect this need with relevant expertise at Queen's University.
There is a long history of community-based drama projects in Belfast, but the use of interactive applied drama techniques is less well developed (Grant, D. 'Ripples in the Pond: Community drama and the development of interactive theatre in Northern Ireland' (2006) in Michael Balfour (ed.) Drama as Social Intervention). The Lighthouse are well established in the city as a vital resource for people in extreme need, but they welcome the opportunity to extend their range of working methods to include drama.
The proposal therefore aims to connect this need with relevant expertise at Queen's University.
Planned Impact
The project will benefit:
Participants in the drama workshops - between 15 and 20 men and women who are Lighthouse service-users
Staff and volunteers and the Lighthouse
The participating researchers at Queen's, including the Research Assistant/Facilitator, and colleagues and students in the university working in the fields of both social science and applied arts
Members of the families of service-users and the wider community who attend interactive performance events
How will they benefit:
The service-users will be introduced to new ways of exploring issues through drama that are important to them in relation to mental health and their wider lives. Their work will be facilitated rather than directed, allowing them signficant input into the design, delivery and dissemination of their own work (as has already been demonstrated in the pilot project, which by their own accounts allowed them to share difficult issues with others in an accessible way).
Staff and Volunteers will have the opportunity to engage in a process of experiential learning and to acquire new sklills and insights relating to the applied drama method.
The research team will have access to professional "real world" expertise and direct feedback from colleagues in the voluntary sector and service-users to enable them to evaluate and refine their own practice.
Members of the wider community associated with the Lighthouse will be able to learn more of the work of the organisation and to share in the creative work of the workshop participants.
Both Investigators have a good track record in impactful research, including projects in prison and health projects led by David Grant and ...
Participants in the drama workshops - between 15 and 20 men and women who are Lighthouse service-users
Staff and volunteers and the Lighthouse
The participating researchers at Queen's, including the Research Assistant/Facilitator, and colleagues and students in the university working in the fields of both social science and applied arts
Members of the families of service-users and the wider community who attend interactive performance events
How will they benefit:
The service-users will be introduced to new ways of exploring issues through drama that are important to them in relation to mental health and their wider lives. Their work will be facilitated rather than directed, allowing them signficant input into the design, delivery and dissemination of their own work (as has already been demonstrated in the pilot project, which by their own accounts allowed them to share difficult issues with others in an accessible way).
Staff and Volunteers will have the opportunity to engage in a process of experiential learning and to acquire new sklills and insights relating to the applied drama method.
The research team will have access to professional "real world" expertise and direct feedback from colleagues in the voluntary sector and service-users to enable them to evaluate and refine their own practice.
Members of the wider community associated with the Lighthouse will be able to learn more of the work of the organisation and to share in the creative work of the workshop participants.
Both Investigators have a good track record in impactful research, including projects in prison and health projects led by David Grant and ...
People |
ORCID iD |
| Peter Shirlow (Principal Investigator) | |
| David Grant (Co-Investigator) |
Publications
Grant D
(2017)
Feeling for meaning: the making and understanding of Image Theatre
in Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance
| Description | Participants engaged well with an ambitious arts programme, taking on creative and artistic risks within the safe environment of drama workshops. The main output was a performance addressing the importance of peer support for men with mental health issues. A relationship emerged between the image theatre techniques used in workshops and a paralleled photography project. The visibility of the project through live performances and related media coverage led to connections being made with intra and inter-community groups, youth, academics, practitioners and politicians. The impact of the drama project was closely linked to a range of inter-related resources and activities such as training programmes and lobbying activities run by the Lighthouse Centre, which created a rich and fertile environment for effective exploitation of the drama-based work. The specific impacts of the drama programme are to be understood in the wider context of direct and indirect personal and community development/awareness. DIRECT • The opportunity collaboratively to explore issues and ideas around mental health ("Nobody in this district talked about suicide at any time. The play brought it into the open, let people sort of face it.") • Enhanced social interaction and agency within and beyond the participants • Enhanced confidence and ability to share and express ideas ("I've more confidence and a bit more willingness to try anything"; "Feeling better about yourself and doing more things".) • Recognition of the success of the project which gave the group a sense of authority to stand up to other influential organisations within the community (e.g. paramilitaries) "They recognise that we are able to stand up to them, face them, so they do. But ex-members of paramilitary groups are saying well done, we should have been doing this years ago." • Participation in the play had led to a much wider engagement in cultural, educational and social activities. ("Most of us have done our catering courses, food and hygiene.") INDIRECT • Participants reported that the play stimulated conversations and approaches from community members in relation to mental health issues. The project had a positive distributive effect in that it signalled the participants as a resource in which to disclose, confide and seek help. The men understood that they were not experts in mental health but guides who directed individuals to mental health service providers. ("We can put them onto people. A wee go between"; "People open up more with people from their own community and they'd see the work we've done doing voluntary work in the community centre and all. They do find it easier to talk to people in their own centres now, than outsiders"; "The more knowledge you have the more you can give out to other people.") • One participant attributed enhanced employment prospects due to his involvement in the play • Participants spoke of healthier form of social interaction and engagement ("Before I joined that men's group I rarely left the house. Now we're seeing plays and looking for other things"). • Attendance at events at Queen's University had encouraged group members to seek out other accessible events such as free live broadcasts at the BBC. |
| Exploitation Route | On an individual level, participants have begun to engage more actively with their immediate and wider communities, and as a group are now seen as a resource for both their own neighbourhood and for the Lighthouse. They regularly receive requests to perform their work in a variety of community contexts. Plans are being developed for a theatre production that would celebrate, but also critique the history of their area (Tiger's Bay) which has both a proud and often problematic reputation. The value of drama as a vehicle for exploring mental health issues is now understood better by the Lighthouse organisation, and the potential for dialogue between different arts interventions (e.g. photography) has added an exciting additional dimension to work. It is anticipated that more members will be attracted to the men's group and that the proposed theatre production will allow further links to be made with groups such as the Jennymount Youth Group and musical groups already based in Duncairn Arts Centre. This should serve to broaden the impact of the work in terms of both age and gender. There has also been some discussion of developing the work on a more cross-community basis with visits to venues in Catholic/Nationalist areas. The project team aim to write two academic papers. Paper 1 (Research in Drama and Education) will examine the cumulative impact of the project upon self-esteem, communicative ability, self-understanding and more reflexive attitudes to life stressors is positioned. It will evaluate manner in which theatre techniques depended and extended participants of the characters and themes they encountered. It will also analyse the impact of life-size paper puppet in terms of stimulating additional resource, and the groups experiences of improvisation and impact upon emotional intensity. A second paper (Journal of Arts and Communities) will evaluate the impact of the drama project as linked to a range of inter-related resources and activities such as training programmes and lobbying activities run by the Lighthouse Centre itself, which created a rich and fertile environment for effective exploitation of the drama-based work. This will relate to the context of agency and identification among the men who participated within the group. The specific impacts of the drama programme interpreted with regard to how drama based approaches stimulate qualitative-influenced and more appreciative understandings of mental health. In late 2014/2015 2015 Professor Shirlow via the Institute for the Study of Conflict Transformation and Social Justice will be hosting an academic/practitioners workshop on mental health needs, linked to OFMDFM funding in Northern Ireland. This will include participants from Notre Dame, Queen's University Belfast and University of Ulster. The research findings will form a workshop related to drama, agency and mental health. Professor Shirlow via funding from the British Embassy in Moldova will be undertaking in April 2014 a 4 day tour of presentations at Moldovan universities. The applied drama and metal health project findings will form part of his presentation entitled 'Northern Ireland: From the Intractable to the Negotiable?' |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Education |
| Description | The Lighthouse organisation and community groups in the Tiger's Bay community have used the programme and its framework to encourage similar and other activities. This has related to male health issues but physical and mental and leadership from males to other males regarding empowerment and capacity building. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2014 |
| Sector | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Education,Healthcare,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections,Other |
| Impact Types | Cultural,Societal,Economic |
| Description | Mental Health Needs |
| Geographic Reach | Local/Municipal/Regional |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | Lighthouse in terms of the projects findings and framework are now more conversant with the link between mental health need and the ability and impact of applied drama to challenge the symptoms of trauma and other conflict related emotional issues. They have promoted the work undertaken within the project within their own organisation. |
| Title | Applied Drama |
| Description | The research teams use of Applied Drama was based upon (via qualitative techniques) the impact of males who had emotional turmoil due to conflict engaging in drama in order to work on positive mental health and to return that knowledge into an improvement of community understandings (that challenged shame, guilt and repression) of mental health. The success of that framework/intervention could speak to the mental health community and professions and instil capacity building within communities estranged by violence. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2014 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | This has been related to the participation of the men in the applied drama project and their understanding od applied drama as a means to challenge mental health issues but personally and within community. The experience of working through the model was also important for the mental health charity Lighthouse as a tool for their future activity. |
| Description | Mental Health North Belfast |
| Organisation | The Lighthouse Trust |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | The research team worked with Lighthouse a suicide prevention charity in North Belfast. They offer support and help for people affected by suicide and bereaved families. They do so via hosting events on awareness, prevention and the deployment of innovative ideas to help raise awareness and funds to help people in crisis. In our project we assisted the confidence building work of Lighthouse with a group of men traumatised by the loss of family members or by the experiences of conflict. Via drama we developed a stand of work that can alleviate many symptoms of distress and trauma. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Lighthouse facilitated access to a group of men rendered vulnerable by the conflict in Northern Ireland. In so doing they aided the design, aims and objectives of the project and advised the research team regarding workshop and other facilitation. This was a mutually enriching project that drew upon a participant action research approach. |
| Impact | The interviewing of project participants indicated that the project had positive outcomes. Theses included a heightened senses of personal value among participants and a n increased capacity to talk about mental health issues. It also led to some participants engaging in suicide prevention work. In the interview stage participants also spoke of greater confidence to engage in the promotion of male health with regard to challenging fear, myth and phobias. |
| Start Year | 2015 |
| Description | Drama and Mental Health Events: Academic Engagement |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | A research presentation at Queen's University to practitioners, NGOs, academics and researchers incorporating a photography project that ran in parallel to the drama project, and which demonstrated the use of puppetry to enhance the impact of the drama. This event led to a discussion of mental health issues, alternative approaches regarding resilience as linked to experiencing mental ill health, policy and community needs. Participants noted the importance of drama as a model for self and group engagement regarding issues of confidence-building, an awareness raising around mental health. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Drama and Mental Health Events: Discussants |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Members of the Men's group were involved in the post-show discussion which followed a performance of Crows on the Wire, a play about the contentious issue of policing reform in Northern Ireland. Crows on the Wire was commissioned by the Verbal Arts Centre from the writer Jonathan Burgess, and explored the transition of the RUC to the PSNI as a result of the Good Friday Agreement, from the perspective of the individual officer rather than the institutional view. Members of the group engaged in discussing the value of the play and the relevance of it to their own production. Developed further interest in there work and encouraged the group to seek additional funding from Belfast City Council. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Drama and Mental Health Events: MLAs |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | The development of a short performance demonstrating the value of peer support in addressing men's mental health issues which has been presented in a variety of locations including to MLAs as part of a lobbying event at Stormont. This included a discussion with elected representatives and relevant statutory organisation and NGOs. MLAs and NGO reps stated that they interpreted the link between mental health needs and community interventions. They also advised on funding opportunities and possible funding issues. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Drama and Mental Health Events: Practitioner workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Specialised workshops with Columbian applied drama practitioner, Hector Aristizibal and South African puppeteer, Aja Marneweck. This workshop developed the nature of the men's work and also developed the practitioners knowledge of the emotional and mental health needs of community. Encouraged further participation and knowledge in the men's group activities and other modes of participation. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Drama and Mental Health Events: Youth Event |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | An introductory drama workshop with teenagers from the Duncairn area allowing the men's group to further disseminate their work. This event led to discussion with youth regarding mental health, coping mechanism and the development of social capital around emotional issues. Several of the participants began to engage in similar activities exploring identity and well-being. Some have engaged with Lighthouse about their emotional needs and others have entered into local community development strategies. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |