The HEArts Program explores the effective use of patient narratives, media and creative arts to stimulate support, sharing and reflection among stakeholders to increase coping and compassion for severe mental illness. Many of our events are also research projects to measure how the arts may help promote healing in times of stress/depression and to also measure changes in attitude on depression stigma.
Our goal is to understand the impact of the arts/narratives on mental health stigma through research. The following academic articles have been published through these efforts by our center’s faculty and staff (links below):
- Mango JD, Lizaola E, Zhang L, and Zima BT. Addressing Depression Stigma Through the Arts Using a Play Inspired by the TV Show Friends. the Behavior Therapist. 2019 June; 42(5): 176-183.
- Mango JD, Griffith K, Kacsits O, Plaia M, Santostefano A, Flores J, Haywood C, Jones A, Kirkland A, Williams P. Commentary: Community Partner Experiences in CPPR: What Participation in Partnered Research Can Mean to Community and Patient Stakeholder. Ethnicity & Disease. 2018 Sept.
- Mango JD, Saks ER, Skrine Jeffers K, Wells M, Chung B, Jones L, Well KB. Addressing Mental Health Stigma Through the Arts: Development of a Stakeholder-Academic Partnered Program. the Behavior Therapist. 2018 April;41(4):200-08.
Past Media and Medicine for Communities Projects
“Thrive”
To celebrate the victory of the Community Partners in Care project, team leaders Loretta Jones (lyrics) and Kenneth Wells (music) developed a choral song, “Thrive!” which was presented at a 2016 conference giving back the findings to the Los Angeles community. “Thrive!” is also part of the National Academy of Medicine’s Visualize Health Equity Art Gallery.
“Mahler on the Couch” Film Fundraiser
The film, directed by Percy & Felix Adlon, was presented by the Psychiatric Education & Research Foundation (Celebrating 20 Years of Service). The screening took place on April 7, 2011.
The PER Foundation was pleased to announce the first phase of a multi-year fund-raising effort in support of psychiatric research that will improve mental health services and outcomes for children and adolescent in the public mental health system of our community. For information on the PER Foundation, visit: www.perfoundation.org
Teen Photovoice Project
The Teen Photovoice Project is a community-based participatory research empowerment education program. The project recruited thirteen minority high school students from three parts of Los Angeles City who were brought together by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention UCLA/RAND Center for Adolescent Health Promotion to serve as a Youth Advisory Board Council. Using a Photovoice methodology driven by Freirian Theory, participants used digital still cameras to explore what they think influences their health behaviors.
Both qualitative and quantitative methods were applied to understand group discussions on pictures, personal narratives, product development, group dynamics, community feedback, and individual measures of empowerment and behavior. This study may offer a unique perspective into the influences of health behaviors identified by adolescents.
The project officially started on January 15th, 2004 with the distribution of digital cameras to the sixteen participating students. Data analysis is now complete, and Dr. Necheles currently is writing up the results for publication.
Pan African Film Festival presents “Real Men. Real Depression.”
An academic-community partnered working group met monthly over one year to formulate approaches to engage the community to talk about depression and wellness. The group developed depression-related outreach events for the 2005 Pan African Film Festival during Black History Month (February) in South L.A. The events included: 1) poetry reading/comedy on depression; 2) photo exhibit by community members depicting influences of their local environment on mood; 3) screening of an NIMH-produced public service announcement (PSA) about depression in African American men, prior to a regularly scheduled film. The group used expert consultation and community participation to develop evaluation questionnaires to measure the impact of these events.
Mood Swings
Media Center partner Victoria Vesna developed the interactive exhibition “Mood Swings” for the Inside Out Loud exhibit, the first significant survey of contemporary American art to explore critical issues related to women’s health. The use of new technologies in Mood Swings creates an interface between virtual and real worlds and engages the viewer by inciting responses to the audio and visual transmutations. This work is informed by the artist’s study of Indian chakra system along with her collaboration with a research group led by Dr. Ken Wells, Professor-in-Residence of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA who studies environmental effects on mental health.
Project Website: http://vv.arts.ucla.edu/moodswings
Media and Medicine: Environment and the Mind
To mark the launch of the newly established UCLA Art | Sci center, Director Victoria Vesna, who also chairs the Department of Design | Media Arts, organized a series of Monday evening roundtable dialogues. Media artists and scientists from the home campus, UCLA, from the UC system, and from the international community will approach the center’s intention to address ethical, social and environmental issues of contemporary scientific innovations and artistic projects that respond to cutting-edge inventions and research. UCLA Media and Medicine for Communities group members, led by Dr. Ken Wells and Dr. Bowen Chung, collaborate with media artist Victoria Vesna and designer Henri Lucas developed a communication strategy for the Hurricane Katrina survivors.
Project Website: http://dma.ucla.edu/events/calendar/?ID=387