Queering the mental health model: sparking investigation through participatory performance

This project aims to support an investigation of queer working-class experiences of mental healthcare using participatory performance as research methodology. We want to find out how a queered experience of mental health services could inform a more tailored health provision for LGBTQ patients, and investigate how a ‘queering’ of the dominant medicalised model of mental healthcare may help provide more specialised support for patients. 

The project will tour non-traditional spaces, such as salons, cafes and launderettes across the UK over a year, presenting participatory performance workshops based on personal experiences of psychosis. We will invite participants to perform their experiences ‘on stage’. 

This model will provoke discussion in places not currently involved in medical discourse. We will collate our findings in a paper, a short documentary film and a fuller artistic response which will share the learning and extend the project’s impact.