Designing Culturally-relevant Narrative Interventions to Spread Awareness About Complex and Intergenerational Trauma in Marginalized Populations in In

Complex and Intergenerational trauma are marked by long-term disruptions in relationships, affect, self-concept, and other domains. Help seeking and disclosure in these phenomena are often hindered by stigma, lack of information and trust. Educational interventions are commonly used to counter stigma and spread mental health awareness; however, reviews have highlighted the need for contextually-adapted strategies developed via stakeholder participation. Narratives that use culturally-relevant metaphors, and are designed using community feedback, can simplify, humanise, and avoid biomedical stigma about trauma. This study aims to design culturally-appropriate narrative interventions to spread awareness about Complex and Intergenerational Trauma in vulnerable populations in India and the UK.

Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis will be used to explore the subjective experiences of the stakeholders to allow in-depth, and contextual exploration of individual experiences. The Stanford Design Thinking process will be utilised to develop an intervention in an iterative, participative, and empathic way. A prototype narrative intervention will be developed by consulting academic, clinical and popular narratives from the UK and India. This will be further modified using data from interviews with stakeholders, specifically focusing on marginalized communities. This project will include overseas fieldwork in India.

The study outcomes will include a workshop manual, two narratives, and a record of the design process that can be applied to other contexts.