Grant: Meetings, Planning and Dissemination Grant: Knowledge Translation

Creative Works Studio (CWS), based at St. Michael's Hospital, is a community arts, occupational therapy program that facilitates reintegration for adults recovering from mental illness. Operating for 12 years it offers a wide range of artistic, therapeutic and vocational activities to its members. The proposed activity will engage CWS members in a participatory series of film-based capacity-building workshops. The purpose is to develop a Knowledge Translation (KT) tool that promotes awareness of the experiences and support needs of persons living with a history of mental illness. In Phase 1 in order to demonstrate the impact of this unique program offered by CWS a series of workshops will be conducted. Participatory film-based interviews with CWS members will portray their lived experiences. A second set of workshops will use the documentary film developed in Phase 1 for Phase 2 to record the responses of family members, healthcare professionals, policy makers and local community members. Participants will be offered the opportunity to incorporate their insights/responses into a final version of the film. The final film resulting from this series of 10 workshops will then be used as a KT vehicle with a broad range of local and national stakeholders: practitioners, healthcare educators, providers of other community based reintegration programs, those experiencing mental illness, funders, the general public, and relevant agencies (e.g. Mental Health Commission of Canada) This KT tool will be used to challenge commonly held assumptions concerning mental illness, by introducing the human element of personal stories in a widely accessible format. At a time where stigma prevails, there is an urgent need for methods that not only inform, but also transform perceptions around mental illness and that thus contribute to improving the quality of life of those who experience serious mental health conditions.