Many individuals and groups are figuring out how to grow emotional, psychosocial and mental health support. They are difficult topics, especially since some of us are coping with one or more of the issues, and have ourselves been at odds with systemic care. This conversation is meant to develop how we think about the responses needed, what daring community projects are looking into this and where we can join efforts.
Some critical points topping our conversations over the last months:
- Those working in creative, artistic professions can be especially vulnerable to domain pressure for success and self-realization. Goodread: On The Relationship Between Creativity and Mental Health
- Solutions to elderly care and isolation can be found at the intersections of public and private care, or young and old(er), by matching youth vitality with idle experience and skillsets.. or others. Goodread: Caring for Life - a dream of fixing the care home crisis in the UK
- Dealing with trauma is a skill each of us needs to learn for self-reliance and empowerment. Goodread: A Bus Tour for a Trauma Informed World
- Sometimes you can heal yourself by healing others. Goodread: Losing Hope and Gaining Hope
- Facilitating forgiveness for trauma recovery can be the hardest job there is, and needs creative responses for healing in community. Goodread: Vital Networks - the work of transforming experience into understanding
As part of our preparations for the OpenVillage Festival we aim to shine light, learn from and support under-the-radar, community based projects around mental health and wellbeing. By October 19-21 we aim to:
- Engage existing initiatives in telling us about the challenges they are facing
- Validate them through open discussion, both online and offline, and understand how mental health solutions deployed in various parts of the world can be streamlined to support more people
- Demonstrate/ Exhibit projects and concepts in a format immediately useful to patients, practitioners, policymakers and other relevant parties.
How you can contribute:
- Explore the stories that others have shared and leave thoughtful comments.
- Tell us about your own care-related experience. Where are some things you have tried to do in the past, what are you doing now.
- Build a proposal for a demo session/ exhibition at OpenVillage Festival. You will deliver a practical, hands-on showcase of a project connected to mental wellbeing. Tell us what support do you need to make it happen?
Open a new document and write down what you are doing or have learned as a result of asking around. Just let it flow freely, don’t worry about getting it “right” in any way - this is a no judgement space. When you feel “done”, login to edgeryders.eu and upload your contribution through the “add my story” button below
Good for you: When you post you will get a ticket to OpenVillage: Meet the OpenCarers.
Good for everyone: Your input goes into the OpenCare research project - the findings are shared in the form of a report which we hope will be useful for everyone interested in care for the 21st century.