Precariousness and Groundedness in arts in mental health

6. This document explores the practices and processual experiences of facilitators and participants of Out of Character Theatre Company and Converge Dance classes, both of which offer weekly workshops in performance to people using mental health services. Through a process of collaborative action research, the dual dynamics of 'precariousness' and 'groundedness' emerge, leading to an exploration of risk-taking in such practice. Such a process challenges potentially problematic discourses arising from experiences of mental health care and may develop a discourse of resistance to living in a state of social and economic of precarity

Taking risks; making art: experiential processes of community-based, facilitated arts in mental health.

What are the processes involved in the practice of making art, through different disciplines, with people experiencing mental distress? What happens when we take the risk of making art together? Using action research and narrative interviews, this thesis investigates these questions from the perspective of the people making the art: dancers, writers, theatre makers, artists and facilitators. In doing so it seeks to generate a situated knowledge of arts in mental health, detached from existing constructions based upon practitioner research and impact studies, in order to offer ways to reframe understanding of the field. Part 1 of the thesis sets out the theoretical terrain through examining the discourses of mental health and the discourses of the arts in order to unpick the complex interdisciplinary traditions that construct how we research and work with people in the context of arts in mental health. Part 2 explores the processes of participation that emerged from the research, looking closely at the significance of group dynamics and self-agency. Part 3 examines the processes of personal, relational and creative risk-taking in facilitated arts practice and their relevance in a mental health context. Through articulating the concept of ‘facilitated creativity’, this thesis proposes that what is particular about arts practice in relation to mental health is the potential for creative risk-taking, which offers opportunities to practice living in an age of precarity and help us develop as people. Finally, part 4 brings together the different theoretical strands from part 1, weaving ideas from these broad theoretical contexts with the findings in parts 2 and 3, to discuss the potential significance of a situated knowledge of process in arts in mental health

Partnerships and Collaborations: The Importance to Humanities, Social Sciences and Creative Arts

In 2001 a week in the life of a dean of humanities, social sciences and the creative arts is radically different from that of only a few years ago. Of course we still meet daily with staff and students, liaise with heads of schools and work with budgets and finances. But diary entries tell the tale of a more complex web of activities. A few days from one weekly diary, for example, might feature meetings with a leading urban developer and accompany a letter to the Minister for Planning to negotiate a Chair in urban design; a lunch with the executive director of the West Coast Eagles Football Club to discuss the prospects of a scholarship for indigenous students named after a great footballer; morning tea with an eminent epidemiologist about the prospective national partnership for human development; meetings with the Minister of Community Development about partners and projects; or with the Minister for Culture and the Arts regarding the future of a major festival; and, believe it or not, a meeting with a major bank to negotiate plans for a joint Chair and Research Centre for something other than finance and banking. And the week is barely half over. There is not a dean within the humanities and social sciences in Australia whose diary does not look like that sketched above. Partnerships with the community, industry and other universities are the only way forward in the environment in which higher education now finds itself. The vision of the current deans in Australia has increased their determination to pursue relationships with outside partners, as has the dynamism of the Academies of Humanities and Social Sciences. The imperatives are visible enough. The level of real government funding to Faculties and Divisions of Humanities, Social Sciences and Arts has dropped in recent years from well over 80 percent to below 60 percent in some instances. Yet there is no doubt that the humanities and social sciences must play a pivotal role in the future of our nation’s education and economy. Last year Robin Batterham (2000) acknowledged this in his report ‘The Chance to Change’, and the concept of the knowledge economy has since been supported by the Prime Minister’s ‘Backing Australia’s Ability’ statement and by Kim Beazley’s ‘Knowledge Nation’

Vector-field statistics for the analysis of time varying clinical gait data.

BACKGROUND: In clinical settings, the time varying analysis of gait data relies heavily on the experience of the individual(s) assessing these biological signals. Though three dimensional kinematics are recognised as time varying waveforms (1D), exploratory statistical analysis of these data are commonly carried out with multiple discrete or 0D dependent variables. In the absence of an a priori 0D hypothesis, clinicians are at risk of making type I and II errors in their analyis of time varying gait signatures in the event statistics are used in concert with prefered subjective clinical assesment methods. The aim of this communication was to determine if vector field waveform statistics were capable of providing quantitative corroboration to practically significant differences in time varying gait signatures as determined by two clinically trained gait experts. METHODS: The case study was a left hemiplegic Cerebral Palsy (GMFCS I) gait patient following a botulinum toxin (BoNT-A) injection to their left gastrocnemius muscle. FINDINGS: When comparing subjective clinical gait assessments between two testers, they were in agreement with each other for 61% of the joint degrees of freedom and phases of motion analysed. For tester 1 and tester 2, they were in agreement with the vector-field analysis for 78% and 53% of the kinematic variables analysed. When the subjective analyses of tester 1 and tester 2 were pooled together and then compared to the vector-field analysis, they were in agreement for 83% of the time varying kinematic variables analysed. INTERPRETATION: These outcomes demonstrate that in principle, vector-field statistics corroborates with what a team of clinical gait experts would classify as practically meaningful pre- versus post time varying kinematic differences. The potential for vector-field statistics to be used as a useful clinical tool for the objective analysis of time varying clinical gait data is established. Future research is recommended to assess the usefulness of vector-field analyses during the clinical decision making process

"A few good men": Public sector audit in the Swan River Colony, 1828-1835

The appointment of the Auditor General to undertake public sector audit is the primary instrument used to safeguard public finances in most contemporary Westminster-based democracies. It is axiomatic that the independence of the Auditor General from executive government is a critical element in ensuring the effectiveness of the role, yet this separation is a relatively recent phenomenon. Those responsible for nineteenth century public sector audit in the Australian colonies operated in what would today be considered an unacceptable environment, with little, if any, independence from the executive arm of government. Yet, while several other Australian colonies suffered from the mismanagement of government finances, there is nothing to show that the Swan River Colony experienced much more than clerical errors and minor administrative oversights. In this article, we explore the extent to which satisfactory public financial management in the Swan River Colony occurred as a result of both good financial management systems (in the context of the era) and the appointment of competent and ethical administrators – “a few good men”

Self, king and country

The push for the creation of a university in Western Australia came in the new years of the 20th century as citizens in the west grappled with what it meant to be a young, vibrant state in the new federation. Other colonies, particularly New South Wales and Victoria, had long since founded their centres of knowledge fro professional and higher education - Sydney and Melbourne universities were both founded almost immediately after their colonies had achieved self government in the 1850s. But the depressed economy and small population of Western Australia had delayed the hope of the resident British community for the chance of a university on their side of the country. That was, until the gold rushes of the 1890s, a period of rapid population growth and financial boom, which generated a civic imagination

Letter to Joseph A. Woodruff from John Stannage

Letter to Joseph A. Woodruff from John Stannage (3 pages) stating that the Sheriff of Lincoln County had no right to sell any of the glebes [land belonging or yielding revenue to a parish church] of Crowland for taxes in either 1852 or 1857, Nov. 25, 1862

The fuss that never ended: Essays on the life and work of Geoffrey Blainey

It is time to reassess the work of Geoffrey Blainey, and consider his role in Australian history, politics and public life. Deborah Gare, Geoffrey Bolton, Stuart Macintyre and Tom Stannage Geoffrey Blainey has steered Australian history into the nation's conversation. No one would dispute that he is a courageous public intellectual, a writer of rare grace and a master storyteller. And he has indeed provoked a rare fuss, both public and professional, with some of his comments on Asian immigration and Aboriginal land rights. Blainey has challenged the academic history profession, not only with his ideas but also by his practice. A brilliant student, he looked set for Oxford but chose instead the austere west coast of Tasmania for his postgraduate research. For the next decade he earned a living with his pen. And instead of political history in the traditional academic mould, he wrote corporate histories that dispensed with footnotes. Always probing and speculative, Blainey has dislodged many of the keystones in our understandings of Australia's past. He was one of the first to write about the expansive social history of this land before 1788; he questioned whether Botany Bay was founded primarily as a convict colony; he argued that the Eureka uprising had economic rather than political causes; and he identified sport as a neglected key to the Australian character. His controversial views earned such newspaper headlines as 'Brave Man Set Upon by Thugs for Telling Truth'. In The Fuss That Never Ended a lively and distinguished assembly of fellow historians of various ages, interests and political stances take a fresh look at Blainey's remarkable and sometimes controversial career