Mental Health Narratives in Singapore: Challenging mental health stigma through interdisciplinary and cross-cultural collaboration

This talk introduces an interdisciplinary and cross-sector research project designed in response to the problem of mental health stigma in Singapore. The diverse and multi-disciplinary team analyses how films, television dramas, novels, and plays represent mental health across four languages: English, Mandarin Chinese, Bahasa Melayu, and Tamil. The project hopes to inspire writers, directors, and producers to create more complex and nuanced representations that can help to challenge the preconceptions and stereotypes that lead to the stigmatisation of vulnerable members of society. The team works closely with patients and practitioners from the Institute of Mental Health and other hospitals and arts organisations in Singapore. In the talk, Graham Matthews shares insights from the three strands of the project which include (i) detailed close reading and analysis of over 300 mental health narratives, (ii) Focus Group Discussions (FGD) with people with mental health conditions, and (iii) Multi-disciplinary and Cross-sector Roundtables (MCR) with experts from a diverse range of sectors and disciplines. In combination, these approaches help provide a culturally sensitive approach to the problem of mental health stigma.

This hybrid seminar is hosted by the Institute for Medical Humanities, Durham University and the Narrative Practices Lab of the Discovery Research Platform for Medical Humanities, which is led by Laura Mazzoli-Smith and Veronica Heney.

This event is free to attend. Please note that Zoom details will be circulated closer to the event.

Find out more about the seminar and reserve your place via Eventbrite.