If You Knew the End of the Story, Would you Still Want to Hear It?: The Importance of Narrative Time for Mental Health Care

Authors

Vicki Saunders, James Cook UniversityFollow
Juanita Sherwood, University of Technology
Kim Usher, University of New England

Abstract

The origins of this paper lie in our experiences of having heard too many stories with the same outcome or ending in the field of inquiry and practice described as “Aboriginal Mental Health.” This paper was written in an attempt to make sense of these experiences. It does so by focussing on another type of outcome or story ending in mental health care/research contexts more widely known as [Recovery]. Not to be confused with the term recovery as it is used in addiction studies, the concept of [Recovery] currently underpinning mental health care policies and reform is at once a philosophy, a practice orientation, and a guiding value and principle. This paper emerged from a range of discussions about [Recovery] as a practice orientation and a particular type of story-ending told by those who receive and provide Aboriginal mental health care in North Queensland. Poetic inquiry was used as a way to respond to the questions that arose from these discussions. In the research projects and discussions that foreground and underpin this paper, the use of poetic reasoning and writing, evolved from using poetry as a reflective tool, to a being used as a method of data collection, data construction, analysis and interpretation (even though none of these words appropriately inscribe these aspects of research within Arts informed research practices). It is also posited as an aesthetic and ethical way of (re)presenting the results of inquiring. This paper (re)presents and unpacks a particular generated poem to demonstrate the approach (as it is and was) used. As an arts-informed approach to social inquiry and to writing, the purpose of this text is to open or introduce an awkward pause in an ongoing dialogue or conversation about Aboriginal people in mental health care and to amplify the Aboriginal voices informing the development of this text.

Keywords

Aboriginal Mental Health, Recovery, Arts Based Research, Poetic Inquiry

Author Bio(s)

Vicki Saunders, BPsych, MPH, is a PhD candidate with the Centre for Nursing, Midwifery and Nutrition, James Cook University in Townsville, Queensland, Australia. Correspondence regarding this article can be addressed directly to: Vicki Saunders at, James Cook University, Centre for Nursing and Midwifery Research, College of Healthcare Sciences, Division of Tropical Health and Medicine, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, 4811, Australia; E-mail: vicki.saunders@my.jcu.edu.au.

Juanita Sherwood, RN, DipTeach, GradCert.Research, PHD is Professor of Australian Indigenous Education, University of Technology, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Kim Usher, RN, DipHSc, BA, MNSt, PhD, is Head of School with School of Health, University of New England in Armidale, New South Wales, Australia.

Publication Date

10-12-2015

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

DOI

10.46743/2160-3715/2015.2333

Recommended APA Citation

Saunders, V., Sherwood, J., & Usher, K. (2015). If You Knew the End of the Story, Would you Still Want to Hear It?: The Importance of Narrative Time for Mental Health Care. The Qualitative Report, 20(10), 1594-1608. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2015.2333