Transmedia Storytelling for Mental Health Stigma
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Transcript of Transmedia Storytelling for Mental Health Stigma
Transmedia Storytelling for Mental Health Stigma Reduction
and Social Inclusion
Nedra Kline Weinreich
April 6-8, 2014 San Francisco, CA
Annual Conference on Youth + Tech + Health
@Nedra
Stories are powerful.
How do stories create change?
Stories grab people’s attention.
Stories make abstract concepts concrete and relevant.
Stories shape our understanding & interpretation of issues/events.
Adr
ian
Kinl
och
Stories provide vicarious experiences.
Photo: Bryan Rosengrant
Stories create empathy for others.
Stories create or reinforce social norms.
Phot
o: S
ista
k
Phot
o: S
ista
k
Transmedia Storytelling
Phot
o: S
ista
k
Immersive Engagement for Change =
Behavior Change Model + Good Storytelling + Ubiquitous Media +
Participatory Experience + Real World
1 in 4 will have a mental health issue
CC P
hoto
: Jes
se V
augh
an
Combating Misperceptions and Discrimination
Social Contact Works!
• Funded by US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Social Inclusion Grant
• Collaboration of Project Return Peer Support Network, the Painted Brain and Weinreich Communications
• Population: Students at California Conservation Corps High School in South Los Angeles
• Primarily low income, underserved, 18-24 years old
Living Our Stories – Transmedia Storytelling Project
• Students would receive training in media skills • Students would collaborate to create a cohesive
transmedia story related to mental health for their peers
• Students would incorporate their own stories with similar themes to the story
• Trained peers/group facilitators with lived experience of mental health challenges would work with the students to help them understand the issue
Program as Conceived
• Students at CCC high school are older and often have work/family obligations
• Two non-overlapping class cohort schedules
• Students not willing/interested in working on project outside of weekly meeting
• Major incentives required for participation • Low participation rate – 3-10
students/session, not always same week to week
Project Challenges
• Modular weekly activities – continuity not essential
• Improv, hip hop, art, haiku stencils • Thematic focus on students’ lives, related to
mental health issues, profiling, social inclusion • Incentivized story element production • Compilation of students’ own stories into an
overall transmedia experience
Current Program
• People telling their own real stories are powerful
• Participants make connections that you might not have considered
• Be flexible in adapting the original plan to what works
• Follow the participants’ preferences in terms of which media to use
• Incentives work!
Lessons Learned