Mental health follow-up II: Drupal ScienceCamp Cambridge 20-21st Jan 2012

After the birds of a feather (BoF) session in Cambridge last month I spent an hour chatting to Beatrice and Matthew Taylor who share my interest in mental health and Drupal.

Since that Sunday morning I've exchanged emails with them both and am sharing some points here raised by Matthew. ...

Matthew:
There are lots of things that I'd like to talk to you about. I've been browsing your pages on the Hodges' Model and I'm really impressed. You've done a huge amount of work.

PJ:
Thanks for that! A lot of the content in the website is quite dated and the HTML & styling reflects this, but positive feedback is always very welcome and I also greatly appreciate your bringing the repeated paragraph in the Michel Serres paper to my attention (corrected now).

Matthew:
It seems to me, on first reading, that you're looking at things from within an institutional setting and that I'm on the outside. However, I can see that there are ways in which the two perspectives could overlap and that the technology now exists that can facilitate the testing of the fit between different health models (and their creation in the first place).

PJ:
Yes, I'm looking at things from an institutional setting in terms of working within the NHS (with regular social care contact), being on the service side of the nurse education system, and working amid a mechanistic medical system that also seeks to be (psycho-)social in orientation. H2cm - Hodges' model however, helps to provide flexibility in the perspectives we can adopt.

In that respect I left the 'institution' in 1985 to work in the community. Your point Matthew is a very useful reminder about not taking things for granted and to what extent is 'community care' free of the institution? What has the institution (of old) become?

I suppose the other side to this is that you are not on the outside. Instead of pushed into the nooks and recesses of individual minds, we need positive mental health to be pushed into the open. The community, the commons, society. We need an infusion of insight to combat stigma and a misalignment - holistic asymmetry - in physical and mental health education and delivery.

Matthew:
As you probably gathered, the direction that I'm coming from is that of personally managed mental health care records. Here are some of the websites that I'm using as guides:

http://indivohealth.org/
http://ontology.buffalo.edu/smith/

PJ:
These website are well worth knowing about - thanks very much. I'll explore them in more depth. Making enquiries (seeking guidance) on my research aims it was suggested to me just before Christmas (c/o Wolverhampton University) that my work seems to be more about ontology than a literature search. I've realised this for quite a while. Key attractions of Drupal include its RDF functionality and the examples provided by specific modules such as Neologism.

Matthew:
I'm currently building an ontology for mental health (from a virtual world perspective) using OBO edit http://oboedit.org . My objective is to embed the ontology in a Drupal website http://www.playsthething.org.uk/ that also exists to promote a conference on well-being.

PJ:
I'm clear that I'm not about to create a mental health record system, truly fascinating a project as that may be (especially in some sectors). There are proprietary and open source solutions out there. I'm also aware of problems with the uptake of Google's, the NHS's and Microsoft's respective attempts to engage with the self-maintained and managed e-record. Drupal's appeal for me also lies in e-learning and using Drupal educationally.

If you've a specific objective in mind Matthew then that immediately cuts through my concerns and that's excellent. I'm lost in my own bag of potential users and requirements. The thought of embedding a health ontology into Drupal is an exciting prospect. I wonder if there is a basic ontology that could fit with h2cm (as one or more conceptual spaces)?

Matthew:
I've been asked to guest edit a section of ArtsProfessional magazine, coming out in May, that will be focused on arts and well-being. I'm going to use it as the opportunity for launching the 'Moonshot for Mental Health' that I touched on at the Cambridge Drupal conference.

If you'd like to write something for the magazine/website on the theme of arts and well-being (and why we need a moonshot for mental health) then just let me know. I can let you know more if you'd like to follow this up.

PJ:
I really would like to contribute, so although I work full-time please do f/w more details.

Last summer in Warrington at Disability Awareness Day (DAD) (July 15 for 2012) I came across (the magazine) Reflections. Specific examples of art were also displayed at this event at Walton Park by 5 Boroughs Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and others. There is so much more that the arts can offer in mental health and the residential care / nursing home sector.

Matthew:
I'd be delighted if you were able to promote a Drupal/MH meeting. I'll start putting something together. Let me know if you have any ideas.

PJ:
I will and would be pleased to assist. There may be scope for a venue in the NW - I could make enquiries at least. There is always Munich and the European Drupalcon this summer!

Thanks for getting in touch Matthew. Lovely to share and talk shop with you and Beatrice also. I hope we can meet again.

Matthew Taylor

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