I believe there are gaps in the current Mental Health System and I believe sometimes society does not treat homeless individuals as fully human.
The pictures of Visual Connection Mapping give people a chance to talk in a non-authoritative way. They are a way for me to show the client that I am listening.
I started Visual Connection Mapping at Our Place Society in October 23, 2013. I have held more than 200 sessions and have more than four (4) files worth of drawings.
Short rundown of 1 years work, 2013 to 2014
1. From 2013 to 2014 actively advocated The Communication Model on a macro, meso and micro level in the city of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
2. Contacted more than 100 professionals in the community of Victoria city
3. Dialogued with more than 400 peers in the community of the Victoria city
4. Attempted to use the method of art to convey a complicated message
5. Attempted to show the cultural climate of Victoria city – hierarchical nature with the intention to decentralize it to make it more fair for individuals with serious mental illness
6. Presented Visual Connection Mapping to the community at the Oak Bay library in September and October 2014 – bringing the outcomes and processes to the community in an open and transparent way in order to put the onus not only on the individuals with serious mental illness and the practitioners but also to attempt to put the onus on the Victoria city community
7. After presenting the findings of The Communication Model to the community in Victoria city it became clear that a Mental Health and Addiction practitioner is a very specialized skill which cannot be transfered to the community through words conveying The Communication Model and all of her components, instead, it is to become a locked in system of ideas, with variants open to the public, such as the blog. However the actual application of Visual Connection Mapping in the community, combined with private components of The Communication Model will remain under a lock and key within the realm of confidentiality and privacy.
anuvdp 