Overview
Photograph by Christina Tallon-Phelan
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major global challenge. It is a significant cause of death and disability across the world and one of the modifiable risk factors for dementia. Traumatic brain injury is a hidden disability, and its impact is largely invisible. As a result, it is misunderstood and awareness levels of the reality of the lived experience low.
Project Details
This project brings the creative arts to support TBI survivors to use their lived experience to build awareness, advocate for change, and make the invisible, visible. It facilitates TBI survivors in Ireland to have their voice heard and engage in advocacy, on their terms. It aims to elevate their voices in a deeply authentic way to draw attention to the multiple issues and challenges they face after a traumatic, life-changing event.
Using a person-centered approach, the project offers an opportunity for participants to experience a range of creative arts opportunities (visual, digital, storytelling, multimedia etc.) developed by creative arts facilitators in the form of a regular Creative Brainwave Café. The next stage involves honing the artistic genre(s) favored/selected by the individual to find expression for their lived experience of brain injury and in turn to evolve an advocacy message(s) from that expression. This offers meaning, value, and purpose to the affected individual and their choices.
The project will culminate in a curated exhibition/showcase of the work of the participants. The advocacy messages will be used in campaigns and advocacy of Acquired Brain Injury Ireland, a national NGO. The experience and learning from the project will be shared nationally and internationally via the development of a ‘How to’ video guide. Given the nature of the project, there is potential to scale up this project in the brain health arena on a global scale.
Members involved
Featured Collaborators
