Teaspoon of Concrete (Aram Hosie, Inspire Foundation)
1. A Teaspoon of Concrete Aram Hosie West Australian Manager 11/16/2010 1 Inspire's mission is to help young people lead happier lives
2. What We Wanted to Know Technology interests & use Attitudes towards mental health. Attitudes towards help seeking. (and) Their ideas on how to use technology to address young men’s mental health. 11/16/2010 2 Inspire's mission is to help young people lead happier lives
3. “Whenever I go on a computer, the first things I open are Facebook and YouTube.” 11/16/2010 Inspire's mission is to help young people lead happier lives 3 Technology Use
7. 11/16/2010 Inspire's mission is to help young people lead happier lives 7 I think chicks. I’d say they can’t really deal with it as much; it might just be their body chemistry, I don’t know.
8. 11/16/2010 Inspire's mission is to help young people lead happier lives 8 It’s one of those things that you don’t think will happen to you. In my case, I always think I’m way to happy to ever suffer [from] depression, but it’s pretty common, stats wise.
10. Guys want to be independent – they’re not interested in being helped 11/16/2010 10 Inspire's mission is to help young people lead happier lives
11. Help is only sought when problems become ‘extreme’ 11/16/2010 11 Inspire's mission is to help young people lead happier lives
12. Help seeking has a stigma 11/16/2010 12 Inspire's mission is to help young people lead happier lives
13. 11/16/2010 Inspire's mission is to help young people lead happier lives 13 It’s a different thing if a guys seeks help than if a girl seeks help. If a guy seeks help, other guys think ‘This guy’s weak, he’s a pussy,’ things like that, while if a girl seeks help, guys are just like ‘ah, it’s a girl thing..’
14. Being a Man. . . 11/16/2010 14 Inspire's mission is to help young people lead happier lives
15. 11/16/2010 Inspire's mission is to help young people lead happier lives 15 Because men are meant to be the head of the family – like the rock – and if they’re having problems, like, it’s going to freak everyone else out sort of thing, so maybe they just don’t want to admit it.
16. Guy Talk 11/16/2010 16 Inspire's mission is to help young people lead happier lives
17. Guys don’t know how to talk about emotional stuff, they don’t like talking about it, and they don’t like hearing about it. They also don’t believe it’s helpful (to talk). 11/16/2010 17 Inspire's mission is to help young people lead happier lives
18. 11/16/2010 Inspire's mission is to help young people lead happier lives 18 The Catch-22 Help-seeking requires intervention from a mate Mates won’t intervene
19. The System & The Process 11/16/2010 19 Inspire's mission is to help young people lead happier lives
21. Anonymity Baby Steps Don’t mention the ‘d’ word Don’t make like it’s a big deal Facts & Testimonials 11/16/2010 21 Inspire's mission is to help young people lead happier lives
29. So at the place where technology meets advocacy, how could we: Create a new men’s health movement as successful as the one for women’s breast cancer? Challenge the attitudes, beliefs and behaviours that make seeking help a sign of weakness? aram@inspire.org.au 11/16/2010 Inspire's mission is to help young people lead happier lives 29
Notas do Editor
Quick Inspire intro..
17 focus groups conducted around Aust – 7 here in WA.‘Bribed’ them to come with $50 gift vouchers from iTunes, MYER, JB HiFi & Rebel SportDiverse cultural background – in additional to differing ethnicity, also got diverse sexuality and gender16-24yo men, diverse range of socio-economic backgrounds (from white collar @ E&Y Sydney to Skaters in Gosnells)
They love the interwebs. One guy said it was his ‘best friend.’They really like watching & sharing funny vids “I just type in ‘lol’ or ‘funny’ and then watch 30 videos..”mySpace “so last year”
As incomprehensible as the share market.
There’s something really, definitely wrong.Straight jackets, crazy old cat ladies, people with schizophrenia: ‘you go straight to the extremes’The people they think experience mental illness are teenage girls or old men – “something happens when you turn 50”Highly influenced by what they see – imagery from mental health services, reports of drought affected old farmers struggling.
Interesting conundrum here, that is the fact that young women are better at seeking help – perceived as being less able to cope, more susceptible to mental illness!
Outright contradiction – recognise, intellectually, that “anyone” can experience mental illness, including young men, but are convinced it won’t happen to ‘them.’Difficult to conceptualise and deal with, so prefer to say ‘it won’t happen to me.’
Like fixing a car – you want to do it yourself, not pay someoneLots of talk of pride (in resolving own issues) and shame in needing to get help
Only when things have broken downWhen they’re really bad and you can’t handle them anymoreIf you were literally about to slit your throat
You wouldn’t be seen dead going to a school counsellor, and if you went you wouldn’t tell anyone about it, because you don’t want ‘dudes judging you’
Help seeking stigma directly related to social & cultural pressures around ‘being a man’All about toughness – which you show by not talking about emotion, and just getting on with it.Emotion = feminine or (possibly worse) gay. Very narrow range of what can be expressed/said.Might say something is pissing you off, but no complexity about that.Have a teaspoon of concrete. Mental illness = weakness.Sports people can get help.. But not mortals.
If mate was talking about the way he was feeling, tell him to harden up.Just joke, pay out on each other.Talk about facts not feelings (including sex)Express care & concern by getting a slab of beer and getting pissed.
Perception issues: going to end up with diagnosis and prescription, don’t trust confidentiality, not sure about the qualifications of those working in the field. Concerned that health professionals can relate to them, don’t like not knowing anything about the counsellor (what if their life is a mess too), counsellors getting paid means it’s just their job, they don’t really care – no trust.Want to be anonymous, don’t like making appointments
Fortunately, they had some ideas..
Anonymity = greater help seekingBaby Steps – send an email, engage in a chat, do online counselling, eventually make it to F2FChange the language we’re using – don’t talk about mental health or depressionTalk about ‘small things’ not ‘big things’ in terms of getting helpDe-isolate the experience.. facts & stats, but also personal stories.Integrate ‘other stuff’ – cars, to girls, to sports..
We think these ideas are good – developed with young men and sit squarely in the remit of what we do at Inspire.But we think they need to be one small part of a bigger picture. Redefine masculinity.create a new men’s health movement as successful as the one for women’s breast cancer?challenge the attitudes, beliefs and behaviours that make seeking help a sign of weakness?Do that through savvy, integrated online/offline campaigning.There
youTube clips of ducks doing mad things. Phoney news reports about the clips posted to youTube.Then picked up by real news!!Wonder Performance Bread then took responsibility for the bizarre behaviour, ran with the tag great for teens, not for ducks.Encouraged duck’s gone wild reporting - to a telephone hotline, blog. Had a ‘duck-repellent’ ring tone.Result: truly viral.. 1/10 Austs has seen youTube clips, picked up in wide range of media.10 000 + people downloaded ring tone or reported ducks800 000 loaves sold in first month, with 50% of target market recalling campaign after one weekImagine if we did something that clever with men’s health seeking?
Dubplate Drama is a multi-platform, interactive drama that is screened on television and online. In this series, the viewers are given the opportunity at the end of each episode to decide the course of the story. The show focuses on inner-city life in the UK and revolves around the underground music scene. Each episode follows “a dynamic group of conflicting and competing characters as they overcome drugs, guns, violence, family upheavals and gang warfare” (IMG). In each episode, a character is faced with a moral dilemma. At this point, the audience can SMS their vote on the character’s decision (they have 2 choices of action (A or B)). The program is creatively shot in order to facilitate this interactive element. On average, thirty percent of extra material must be shot and edited to create a ‘B version’ for each episode. The show’s style is gritty and realistic. During the episodes, characters will endorse certain campaigns (e.g. anti-knife), however these endorsements are clearly separated from the show, thus avoiding a ‘preachy’ vibe. Dubplate drama uses actual MCs from the underground ‘grime’ music scene, lending it significant credibility, authenticity and appeal to the youth audience. Outcomes:Figures provided by MySpace, Chanel 4 and MTV on Series 1 and 2: Interaction80% of respondants have voted on an episode dilemma40% of respondents have voted for every episode that they watched89% of respondents said that they intended to watch ‘all or most’ of the series Viewing Figures500,000 viewers per week on Channel 4600,000 total MTV viewers610,000 online views6,000 mobile downloads120,000 online votesOver 80,000,000 page impressions Demographic85% of the research respondents were between the ages of 16-22 years old.Males made up to 60% of the respondents.43% of the audience considered their ethnic origin to be black and 35% white.At a much cheaper rate than for other reality TV shows like Big Brother and Pop Idol.