25 October 2013
The Centre for Contemporary Literature held a day-long symposium on the issue of care (both professional and non-professional) within the rapidly growing field of medical humanities. The event brought together academics, artists and medical practitioners, and featured a mixture of 20-minute academic papers and more informal, 10-minute presentations.
The symposium was organised by Dr Reina van der Wiel. She reports: “‘Contemporary Narratives of Care’ drew together delegates from across the globe to discuss and debate issues of care relating to parenting, mental distress, physical illness, disability and ageing. In consideration of the British government’s welfare reforms and the recent revelations about the failure of care in some hospitals, this discussion could not have been more timely.” The symposium was highly interdisciplinary and examined the personal, political, ethical and professional dimensions of care-giving from multiple perspectives.
The day started with a panel on the phenomenology and politics of informal care, followed by a session specifically on dementia and Alzheimer’s care. Presentations explored music therapy, the experiences of family carers and graphic life narratives. A panel on identity and care investigated the language of ‘carer’ versus ‘caring’ as well as narratives of ageing. The increasing use of literature in medical education was demonstrated in the fourth session, which included a recording of a theatre workshop using Samuel Beckett’s plays in clinical education. The topic of (non)recovery closed a very successful event.
Reina comments: “The symposium was an opportunity to put all these voices from different fields in touch with one another so we can help each other grapple with contemporary issues of care. In particular, it looked at the role narrative, and literature more generally, could play in re-thinking what it means to care.”
Programme
Panel 1: Informal Care: Phenomenology & Politics
Ann Webster-Wright (University of Queensland, Australia), Fatherland: A Phenomenological Narrative Exploring Ethics of Care (20 min paper)
Lee Gunn (University of Warwick), Family and Friend Care for People Experiencing Severe Mental Distress & Finding my Own Voice through the Medium of Literary Non-Fiction or Life Writing (10 min talk)
Alessandro Pratesi (University of Chester), The Politics of Care: Same-Sex Parenthood, Emotional Dynamics and Social Change (20 min paper)
Panel 2: Dementia & Alzheimer’s Care
Vanessa Solomon (Infinite Education and Training, Australia) & Daniel Nightingale (CEO Dementia Therapy Specialists, United States), Music and Reminiscence Therapy Incorporating Storytelling (MaRTIS): Development, Applications and Outcomes of this Method (10 min video presentation, pre-recorded)
Nicola L. Wheeler (Open University), Early-Onset Dementia: Understanding and Learning from the Experiences of Family Carers (20 min paper)
Kathleen Venema (University of Winnipeg, Canada), “she never finished her life’s work”: Graphic Narratives of Alzheimer’s Care (20 min paper, pre-recorded)
Panel 3: Identity & Care
Nic Hughes (University of Leeds), Personal Identity and Caring: Stories Told by Relatives and Friends of People with Multiple Sclerosis (20 min paper)
Paula Vasara (University of Jyväskylä, Finland), Narratives of Ageing in Place: Negotiating Identities among the Aged in Senior Housing (20 min paper)
Panel 4: Literature & Medical Education
Orsolya Papp-Zipernovszky (University of Szeged, Hungary), A Narrative Training Method for Medical Students (10 min presentation)
Tammy Amiel Houser (The Open University of Israel), Caregiving in Times of Violence: David Grossman’s To the End of the Land (20 min paper)
Jonathan Heron (University of Warwick/Fail Better Productions) & Elaine Hawkins (Health Education Kent Surrey and Sussex [NHS]), Imagine…not suffering… Clinical Education and ‘Compassionate Care’ through the Drama of Samuel Beckett (10 min presentation)
Panel 5: (Non)Recovery
Canoe – short film by Deborah Schnitzer and Shelagh Carter
Deborah Schnitzer (University of Winnipeg, Canada), “Heroic” Husband as “Poster Child” for Medical Community Transplant and Dialysis Promotion Programs: There ain’t no cure for this. (20 min presentation, pre-recorded)
Louise Anthias (Tavistock Centre/UEL), The Last Journey Together: Experiences of Caring for a Partner with Late Stage Cancer at Home (10 min talk)
Lymarie Rodriguez (Birkbeck, University of London), Alcoholics Anonymous, Recovery and Care for the Self (20 min paper)
Image by Fotos GOVBA under a CC BY-NC-ND license.
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