For Carers Week and Mental Health Week, Mental Health Families and Friends are looking to develop a “Story Book” full of families and friends’ experiences.

We are asking families and friends who support someone living with mental ill health and or AOD use, to send through a piece of writing, an image, a drawing, or whatever you feel comfortable with, to find meaning and to heal, and those who read it, an opportunity to feel validated, less alone, connected, understood, and to find meaning of their own experiences.

Here is an example

Below is more information

This activity comes from the Narrative Therapy Approach of storytelling, which aims to uncover opportunities for growth and development, find meaning, and understand ourselves better. Storytelling allows us to connect over shared experiences, express our emotions in a safe way, and a chance to organise and understand our thoughts and feelings. This therapy is respectful, non-blaming, and views the person as the expert of their story, and believes that the “problem is the problem, the person is not the problem”.

This activity has been used for those staying in psychiatric wards as a part of their own recovery.

Families and friends could write, draw/paint, or send a photo that resonates with you, without identifying yourself or the person you care for:

• Write a letter to the illness that your loved one lives with
• Write about how the caring role has impacted you
• Write a letter to the person or yourself before the illness
• Write a letter to stigma, as if it is a person.
• Write a letter to your loved one.
• Write a letter to their own and or their loved one’s recovery, as if it were a person.
• Write a letter to their family or friends who don’t understand their experiences
• Write a letter to people who judge their loved one
• Draw/paint an image of how you feel
• A photograph that brings you peace

And if you are someone with a lived or living experience of mental ill health and or AOD use, we are also asking you to send through a piece of writing, an image, a drawing, or whatever you feel comfortable with to express your appreciation of those who have supported you in your journey.

You can write, draw/paint, or send a photo that resonates with you, without identifying yourself or your family member or friend.

You can send your piece via email: admin@mhff.org.au or post: Mental Health Families and Friends Tasmania, Ground Floor 2 Terry Street Glenorchy, 7010.

Submissions close 30^th of September