Can literature and narrative improve the lives of young people?

This one-day programme of talks and workshops will bring together literary and humanities scholars with service users and practitioners in the field of child and adolescent mental health. Together we will ask questions about the role of literature as a point of therapeutic engagement in caring for children, adolescents, and young people.

We are interested in how literature might play a role when we experience pain, trauma, and stress, as well as the ways in which literature might be employed as a tool to improve communication and foster understanding between medical learners, healthcare providers, service users, and family members.

Programme
9.30 – 10.00 Arrival and Registration
10.00 – 10.10 Welcome and Introduction
10.10 – 11.10 First Keynote Address
Joanne Dunphy (Vice Principal, Oxford Spires Academy), ‘Being Heard’
11.10 – 11.30 Coffee Break
11.30 – 1.00 Presentations
Dr Mina Fazel (Associate Professor in Psychiatry, University of Oxford), ‘Adolescence and Authority:
Exploring the Contradictory Messages Young People Navigate in Mental Healthcare’
Dr Gordon Bates (MBChB, MMedSc; PhD Candidate at the University of Birkbeck), ‘“A Lot of You Cared, Just Not Enough”: Teen Suicide in Popular Culture’
Dr Edward Harcourt (Faculty of Philosophy, Oxford and Director of Research, AHRC), ‘Emotional Self-Regulation and Autonomy’
1.00 – 2.00 Lunch
2.00 – 3.10 Presentations
Dr Gaby Illingworth and Dr Rachel Sharman (Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences), ‘The
Teensleep Study: Sleep Education in UK Schools’
Students from Oxford Spires Academy, ‘Poems from a School”
3.10 – 3.40 Coffee
3.40 – 4.50 Presentations
Dr Jacqueline Yallop (Senior Lecturer in English and Creative Writing, Aberystwyth University), ‘Writing
Pain Wales: Working with Creative Writing and Chronic Pain’
Professor Brendan Stone (Deputy Vice-President for Education, The University of Sheffield), ‘“I Travelled Deeper into the Heart of an Extraordinary World”: Reflections on Entering into “Psychosis”’
4.50 – 5.50 Second Keynote Address
Dr Barbara-Anne Wren (Consultant Psychologist, Royal Free London NHS Trust), ‘Paying Attention to
Meaning: Using Narrative to Understand the Experience of Caring for Children and Young People’
5.50 – 6.00 Closing Comments
6.00 Drinks Reception