Abstract
This article is part of a larger study investigating the perceived value of using comics as an information resource in the teaching and training of mental health and social care professionals in a higher education setting.We surveyed 108 library users at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, which specialises in mental health and social care and is a centre for both treatment and training. The study showed that most participants believed that comics have a potential role to play in mental health care training, and that challenges remain in getting comics perceived in ways that are not limited by existing prejudices or socio-cultural assumptions.Amongst other findings, the study found no significant association between the age or gender of participants and their attitudes to comics in an academic context. Participants considered that the most useful application of comics within the mental health and social care domain was their potential use in medical or therapeutic settings with young people. Even when our sample was not dominated by participants who reported reading comics regularly, the study showed that recent experience of reading comics seems to positively influence how comfortable participants feel about using comics for teaching or learning.Publisher’s Note: This article was originally published with an incorrect peer review statement, which said that this article was an internally reviewed editorial. This has now been amended to reflect the fact that this is a piece of research that underwent double blind peer review by two external reviewers.
Highlights
Recent literature provides evidence that a growing number of comics are being published on health-related topics, including aspects of mental health and social care (Williams, 2012; Czerwiec et al, 2015) and that comics are increasingly being used in higher education settings as information resources
One of the key insights from this study is that most participants believed that comics have a potential role to play in mental health care training, and that, as we had expected, challenges and barriers remain in getting comics perceived in ways that are not limited by existing prejudices or socio-cultural assumptions
It is insightful that the study found no significant association between the age or gender of participants and their attitudes to comics in an academic context
Summary
Recent literature provides evidence that a growing number of comics are being published on health-related topics, including aspects of mental health and social care (Williams, 2012; Czerwiec et al, 2015) and that comics are increasingly being used in higher education settings as information resources. It remains necessary to assess the current attitudes towards comics from those working within the mental health domain, in order to better identify challenges and opportunities for their wider adoption within that setting. We proceeded from the hypothesis that attitudes towards comics can help define whether comics can be more widely adopted within mental health and social care educational settings, and gaining insights into what those attitudes are could have an impact on the ways that health professionals are trained. A previously published article and dataset provided observations from interviews with comics creators and distributors (Farthing and Priego, 2016a; 2016b)
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