Storytelling helps young people in Gippsland tackle stigma

Fuelled by a desire to identify and address the structural drivers of stigma, as experienced by rural young people whose parents experience mental health challenges, the StigmaBeat project worked with young people in Gippsland to tell their stories through short films, photo-stories and artworks.

The StigmaBeat Project, run by Monash Rural Health in collaboration with the Satellite Foundation,

found that the existing concept of stigma did not really represent the breadth of the experiences of young people whose parents have mental health challenges, and the various overlapping ways they had been marginalised, disempowered, devalued and discriminated against.

By allowing participants to express their thoughts and feelings through short films, photo-stories and artworks, their voices were able to be heard and understood on a much deeper level. Participants were aged between 15 and 24 years old, lived in Gippsland and were recruited to the project through youth mental health support services.

The participants identified with the experience of stigma not only due to being children of parents with mental health challenges, but also as young parents, as members of sexual or gender minority groups, as people with learning disabilities and as mental health service users themselves.

There was a strong sense of stigma being experienced in a wide range of settings, including within families and from people in health and education, such as teachers, peers and others in the school environment, employers, GPs and doctors (hospitals in general were also identified as sources of stigma), within other services that young people interact with and in interactions with older generations.

Parental mental health issues can bring challenges for all family members and for family relationships, however participants also spoke about the love and mutual support experienced within their families. They appreciated having opportunities to develop empathy, understanding and many strengths. However, we also know that they may have an increased risk of developing mental health difficulties themselves, as well as experiencing behavioural, interpersonal, academic and social difficulties.

Through the lens of the media and artworks created by the participants, a new perspective on the experiences of stigma in the lives of young people with parents with mental health challenges was discovered. The short films and artistic responses helped move beyond a focus on mental health stigma alone, to recognise in the young people’s accounts and reflections of their struggles, experiences of having their lived experiences invalidated, dismissed and overridden.

Some of the short films produced can be accessed on the website of the Satellite Foundation, who specialise in providing programs and support to children and young people who live in families where a parent or another family member experiences mental health challenges.

All in all, having young people express their thoughts and feelings through media and artworks was an amazing learning experience, where young people shared a depth of information they may have been reluctant to share in other ways. As a result, understanding of deeper underlying and interrelated issues was expanded upon.