Developing a network for mutual learning on the potential of creative arts for mental health advocacy and activism in Ghana and Indonesia

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This project will create a network of researchers, artists and people with lived experience of mental illness in Ghana, Indonesia and the UK to explore the potential of creative arts to support advocacy and activism. Mental illness can be very disabling and people living with mental illness can experience discrimination, stigma and exclusion in areas such as education, work and housing. They can also be subjected to human rights abuses such as chaining. Creative arts including poetry, music, and drama, can be successful in engaging people in social issues, such as human rights and mental health, and campaigning for change. However there has not been much use of the arts in mental health advocacy in low-income countries and we don't know which methods and approaches will work best in different settings. It is important that people living with mental illness are included in decisions that affect them and enabled to participate in a meaningful way in research and advocacy. We will start with three meetings with people living with mental health conditions in Ghana and Indonesia to give time and space to develop trust and enable an open discussion to find out what are their problems, priorities and needs. This will include talking about difficult issues and listening to different points of view. We will take special care to make sure that people who are more disadvantaged, such as people with severe mental health conditions or who have difficulties reading or writing, are supported to participate. After these meetings we will hold two more meetings with the group and with artists in each country. In these meetings artists will learn about the experiences of people living with mental illness in their country and explore how creative arts could be used for advocacy. They will discuss the preferred language and images to be used and ways to keep people safe and protect their mental health and confidentiality. In the second meeting they will experiment with different creative arts to see which work best to support safe open conversations and deepen understanding.Finally we will hold a two-day workshop for mental health advocates, artists and researchers from the three countries to meet face-to-face in Indonesia. We will invite the group of people with lived experience of mental illness who took part in the meetings in Indonesia as well as stakeholders, such as caregivers, health workers, community groups and policy makers to the workshop. In these discussions we will share what we have learned during the group discussions in each country and identify the opportunities and barriers to including people with mental illness and promoting their rights in each country. During the workshop we will use creative arts to help people listen to each other across different levels of power and social status, ask questions and reach decisions.During the visit to Indonesia we will launch the network and our website. Our aim is to include more people from different countries in the network and to develop activities using the arts for mental health advocacy together. We will write papers, hold webinars and seminars and advertise the network on social media and radio and television in each country. We will write guidelines based on what we have learned which can be used by people with lived experience and their families, artists, researchers, and activists who want to use arts in advocacy to promote the rights of people living with mental illness.