Mental Wealth

“The beach is a very calm space where I can experience freedom of thought and well being. I enjoy spending time with my dog and I feel in this particular picture a feeling of balance and happiness is communicated. Balance is crucial as it implies contentment, a state of equilibrium. This can be achieved through keeping busy, doing different activities. It is important if you have mental health issues to get out there and to be active.”

“This picture expresses a sense of being serene and moving in a direction – being future orientated, digesting the past and looking forward. If you are getting over mental health problems support is vital but we need the freedom to define the future for ourselves – to define our dreams and ambitions.”

“This photo is about looking into the heart of the sun. When you are schizophrenic you see beautiful colours but it makes you blind – like looking into the sun. If you look too close things blur but it doesn’t mean they are not there. Schizophrenia or mental illness is when the colour drains from you.”

This is my Mum. It is a contented and peaceful photo. My Mum has coped with a lot. Her first husband was killed in the war and my father suffered with a mental illness. My mother cared for me and then for me when I was ill. I need support but what about care for the carer?

“This picture is about re-learning to get on the bus and not getting impatient. It is the kind of thing other people take for granted but I have found it very hard for a while. I chose to photograph this because I wanted to show how difficult it is for me to be independent. I am trying to change my way of thinking to see a bus journey as a way of going from A to B rather than being trapped. I wish I could be like the other people on the bus who seem relaxed and comfortable.”

“In this photo I am trying to show how you feel when you are ill. You feel insecure, lonely, paranoid, scared of being taken away, I even became scared of my own family. When you are ill you feel surreal because of the drugs – you hear voices, sounds, you see colours, lights. You think you see a weird thing then you look again and it’s something normal. Now I am well I don’t see these things or hear those voices. But it’s always there and sometimes the drugs can make you feel strange.”

UR in the Picture workshop

I was totally shocked at how a photograph in a person's hand would enable someone who finds public speaking impossible to stand in front of a group and speak confidently about their very personal fight with the illness that they have… PhotoVoice, in my opinion, has made and can continue to make fundamental changes in people's lives. Phillip Stone, Support Worker, United Response

In March 2005, I facilitated PhotoVoice workshops with United Response and a group of seven of their beneficiaries with mental health needs from Dorset, West Sussex and Kent. The aim of the project was to harness the power of photography to produce a set of images to communicate the reality of daily life from the perspective of a person with mental health needs.

The series of six workshops resulted in a wealth of images, self-portraits and testimonies that communicated individual hopes, fears and achievements. The images explored the stigma of living with a mental health need but also explored what makes life worth living.

The images were exhibited at The House Of Commons in May 2005 with the aim to raise awareness of some of the key issues facing people with mental health needs, particularly in the context of proposed new Mental Health legislation, and to highlight these to MPs and policy makers.

The parliamentary event was a great success. The photography project was designed to raise awareness of the reality of living with a mental health need, and it succeeded in this. But what no one expected were the profound therapeutic benefits it brought to participants. These were captured by an independent evaluation which recorded the following outcomes:

Knowing that their work would be showcased to an audience, people used the experience of taking part in something ‘bigger than themselves’ to overcome individual problems.
One participant wrote articles for two publications about the project and for the House of Commons reception.
Five participants enrolled on photography courses.
One participant has used the money he receives for respite care to fund a residential catering course, aiming to return to employment.
One man’s participation helped him overcome a chronic phobia concerning his appearance. He delivered a presentation to UR trustees about the value of the pilot project, travelling alone on a bus for the first time.
Five participants said the project personally achieved more than months of counseling or medication in terms of building confidence and self esteem.

Given the success of Mental Wealth, I went on to design and co-manage a second stage of PhotoVoice's work with United Response which ran from 2006-08. UR In the Picture sought to integrate photography methods into United Response's mental health support work. Community based support workers were trained in therapeutic photography methods and supported to deliver pilot workshops. A training resource on Therapeutic Photography was also produced.

Evaluation report:

Brandling, J. and Wall, S. (2009) United Response: UR in the Picture. Final Report. University of Bath, Mental Health Research and Development Unit