About the Funded Project

What Hurts, What Helps, What Heals

Consultants Hilda Willis, Creative Director of The Tupac Shakir Foundation, and Jaren Doby, a Clinical Social Worker were hired to advise, guide, and instruct the Touring Theatre of North Carolina’s writing team in developing mental health monologues. They will also share how to create age-appropriate support and resource materials. These Mental Monologues are designed to educate and engage school-aged children, young adults, parents, peers, and educators on the complexities of mental health. We seek to confront this crisis in a manner that will enhance the work of school counselors and psychologists. TTNC’s mission is to bring dignity to the human condition by creating original productions that bring attention to a cause or concern. The origin of the company’s work is rooted in the school system. We have been touring productions, delivering comprehensive study guides, workshops, and residencies for almost 40 years to schools across North Carolina. Our work is collaborative and calling on the expertise and advice of an experienced specialist is embedded in the company’s creative practice.

Willis and Doby will work with three writing team members; they will each create two mental monologues. Through a series of work sessions led by our consultants, they will craft characters who are relatable and monologue text that will deal with relevant mental health topics. To ensure that this project is beneficial, the Touring Theatre team must gain an understanding of these sensitive issues.

The monologues will be developed from components of various sources. These sources will include case studies, articles, literature, data, statistics, new media, and social media platforms. It has been shown that illustrating a health condition or problem helps bring a topic to life by adding a human face. It makes the issue real and helps educate audiences on warning signs and symptoms they should be looking out for, which can help people identify if they are suffering from the condition dramatized. Although dealing with sensitive issues is challenging, Willis and Doby have the expertise to guarantee that all elements are appropriate, and evidence based.

Mental health issues affect nearly half of the global population, at some point, by age 40. Add to that recent pandemic challenges, maintaining mental wellness while managing fears and uncertainty. Navigating these realities can be daunting, but one thing is clear: it’s time to think differently when it comes to how we engage our minds. The performing arts offer tools and techniques that can lead to coping, healing, and understanding the complexities of mental health. While practicing or being exposed to the performing arts is not the panacea for all mental health challenges, there’s enough evidence to support that prioritizing arts at home and in our education, systems is practical and imperative.

Data from the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights indicates that one in five schools lacks a school counselor. In addition to a shortage of counselors, many schools do not have regular access to school-based mental health professionals. Numerous schools must share school psychologists, social workers, nurses, and other specialized support personnel within a district. This shortage increases caseloads for these professionals and limits access to services for students needing assistance. Mental Monologues hopes to support the work of professionals by closing the gap between knowing you need help and receiving it.

In youth, mental health problems often go hand-in-hand with other health and behavioral risks like increased risk of drug use and committing violence. Many health behaviors and habits established in early childhood will carry over into adult years; it is essential to help young people develop good mental health. Over the past decade, health psychologists have begun looking at the arts and its various ways to heal emotional injuries, increase understanding of oneself and others, develop the capacity for self-reflection, reduce symptoms, and alter behaviors and thinking patterns.

Key evidence supports mental health disparities, including the fact that for adolescents who experience an episode of depression, African American, Asian, and Hispanic youth were much less likely to receive appropriate treatment when compared to non-Hispanic, White peers. Other disturbing examples include African American youth assigned conduct disorder diagnoses when their White counterparts were diagnosed with anxiety and substance abuse disorders and referred to counseling/therapy.

The mental health crisis affects youth across the country and it is our hope that this project, What Hurts, What Helps, What Heals can be an additional resource for students, mental health professionals, teachers, administrators, families and communities.