Dr. Anne Mitchell sits down with Action Research Yes/And co-host Skip Bivens to talk about community mental health research in her native Guyana using participatory digital storytelling (DST). Anne’s career in psychiatric nursing took her to the UK where she practiced in the NHS for more than four decades. Then she took an academic turn, completing a PhD using storytelling as a core methodology.

In 2019, Anne turned her attention to Guyana–which has the third highest suicide rate globally–to utilize DST methods in three distinct contexts in order to understand how better to strengthen community resilience. An overview of this research process recently was published in the Action Research Journal. (See link in the show notes.)

In this interview, Anne provides further detail about the methodology her team used, as well as findings arising from the communities’ DSTs. She also details her efforts of how she is leveraging this research to influence mental health policy across the whole of Guyana.

Show notes:
Digital storytelling within a community-based mental health improvement programme in Guyana. Mitchell, H. A., Waights, V., & Hart, T. (2024). Action Research Journal. https://doi.org/10.1177/14767503241296717

Arclight Community Mental Health Resilience Handbook:
https://cobracollective.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/ARCLIGHT_handbook.pdf

TV is a key stakeholder. Action Dialogue with Dr. Ann Mitchell. Action Research Plus.
https://actionresearchplus.com/action-dialogue-with-dr-ann-mitchell/