HOAX: A cross-media project to tackle stigma in mental health
Research type
Research Study
Full title
HOAX Our Right to Hope: A cross-media project to tackle stigma in mental health
IRAS ID
214974
Contact name
Paul French
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 6 months, 0 days
Research summary
HOAX is an artwork which emerged from the work of Thornton who discovered her brother Rob’s poetry after he had taken his own life after living with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Thornton developed an award-winning graphic novel called ’HOAX Psychosis Blues’ based upon her brother’s poetry. The title of which was taken from one of Rob’s poems. Following the publication of the graphic novel, a stage musical was developed titled ’HOAX My Lonely Heart’ which told the story of Rob’s early life and first experiences of psychosis. The stage musical premiered at The Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester in June 2014 which received excellent reviews and standing ovations. The success of the stage musical led Thornton to develop a proposal to take this artwork on tour across the North of England which successfully obtained touring funding from Arts Council England. The HOAX project will tour across five venues where every individual will receive a copy of the ’HOAX Psychosis Blues’ graphic novel in addition to attending the ’HOAX My Lonely Heart’ stage musical. The research element of the project, is an opportunist evaluation of this artwork which aims to evaluate the impact of this project upon stigma beliefs. In order to successfully capture data on the impacts of HOAX, an app has been developed which can collect data on stigma beliefs before and after attending the stage musical and then again after reading the graphic novel. The app has been developed to collect all the standard questionnaire measures typically associated with this type of intervention however, through the inclusion of additional narrative it is hoped to increase participant engagement with pre post measures. It is a trio of art pieces, the stage musical, graphic novel and app, which can stand-alone independently but collectively have been termed HOAX Our Right to Hope.
REC name
North West - Preston Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/NW/0773
Date of REC Opinion
3 Nov 2016
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion