Training Patient and Family Storytellers and Patient and Family Faculty

[A Former User]

Judy

I find this Link helpful

Thank you

Virginia

[A Former User]

Recently I was asked to co-present on the family perspective in youth mental health and on family peer support for family member and informal caregivers of affected youth. The 2-day conference, including training workshops, seeks to target clinicians working in youth mental health. In addition to preparing my presentation on family engagement and family peer support, the organisers asked me to share my personal story at the end of the hour-long very dense clinical co-presentation, after question period and just before lunch.

I don't share my personal story very often. The reason for this is because my story about my arduous journey with my son into the chaos of mental illness and the mental healthcare system, is part of who I am today, as a mother, wife, friend and family peer support facilitator. As such, I tend to be protective of my story, sharing it where and when appropriate, and giving it enough time to be heard by people who want to, and maybe need to, hear it.

So when the request came to share my story in these circumstances, my knee jerk reaction was to say no. Then I remembered PAN just put up on its website the Making Stories Matter tips, so I read through them again. I have to say this has been extremely helpful for me. I was able to drill down on the parts of my story that would make sense for my audience without taking away from its essence. I also decided to use visual aids instead of simply narrating, resulting in being able to deliver a more impactful statement.

The power of the story cannot be underestimated. Our stories embed themselves into the very fabric of our being. Extracting them from our memory to pass on to others requires patience and practice, especially if we are still living an evolving story. I hope when I share my story tomorrow, the audience gets the message - compassion, care and hope - that will make the difference for me in telling my story.

Thanks PAN!

[A Former User]

So glad the Making Stories Matter tip sheets were helpful. We would welcome additional feedback and ideas for other things that are helpful to us as advisors.

Let's share so we can all learn from each other how to be more effective as advisors. Cheers! Alies

[A Former User]

HI Mary Anne

I am curious as to what visual aids you used for telling your story.

I may have to present in 2018 on the impact of peer support, I am also a peer support facilitator.

Virginia

[A Former User]

Hi Virginia,

Yes, I think I remember you mentioned you facilitate in connection with chronic care - is this correct?

As for the visual aids - early on, when I was asked to share my story, I portrayed various emotional parts of the story as being analogous to finding myself and my son stranded in the middle of the ocean in a rowboat. At last week's conference, instead of narrating for 20 minutes straight, or putting up a written chronology of events, I downloaded 8 "royalty free" pics of a rowboat on the shore, going out to sea, on the sea, etc. (you get the idea) and I spoke to what the audience saw. I must say the response was quite dramatic - I guess a picture is worth a thousand words! lol

Hope this helps

Mary Anne

[A Former User]

Hi Virginia, I'm not sure why your entry is missing from this string, but here is your question again: I am curious as to what visual aids you used for telling your story. I may have to present in 2018 on the impact of peer support, I am also a peer support facilitator. Virginia

Further to Alies' questions and Mary Anne's reply...

I do a lot of public speaking for many different healthcare audiences, and like Mary Anne I use metaphor extensively. My slide decks are almost entirely images that I find on Google Images that have no fee for use. I post the copyright citation or url, if it is available. I do not add words to the image, just show a slide with an image.

As one example, when I talk about the systems response to my husband's avoidable hospital death, I have a photo of Nick on one side of a slide and a dramatic (and well-known) photo of a train wreck in Paris on the opposite side. I say that one person died in each incident but the response was very different. The train wreck was unavoidably obvious, thoroughly investigated, resolution sought with the victim's family and system flaws remedied. Nick's death was easy to ignore, never reviewed. I and his devastated care team were abandoned and no learning would support change. So that's why I do my work: help professionals recover from bad care events and see to it that Nick's death has meaning.

I rely on images as symbols for nearly everything in my talks. I don't like having slides read to me by presenters, so among my 40 slides, maybe three have words that I reference but suggest are to be read carefully later. A two or three others might have 7-10 word "Big Ideas" that I speak to.

You didn't ask, but what I've learned about my own talks is that the total number of slides is about the minimum time: 40 slides = 40 minutes. That includes my four essential slides:

• title slide with date, audience and my name and contact info

• second slide for stating disclosures: no formal healthcare training, this is voluntary unpaid work, my bias is from the patient, family and public perspective

• third slide with a lit lightbulb on an open palm, to which I state the two or three "takeaway" ideas I will be offering

• final "Thank-you!" and "Questions?" with my contact information clearly given to encourage follow-up.

My slide deck is always available to participants afterwards through the organizers. I also agree to have my talks video recorded to spread my messages beyond the room.

I hope all this helps you Virginia, and PAN members everywhere. We each have our own style. Perhaps other PAN members would like to offer their approach to slide preparation? Good luck in developing your own style!

Cheers, Carolyn

[A Former User]

thank you, MaryAnn, for taking the step(s) to share your story with us.

anita l-l

[A Former User]

Visuals are always more powerful than words.

Max #words on a slide = 9 (3 bullets x 3 words/ bullet), BUT preferably NO words, just pics.

Also, fewer more powerful visuals tend to be better then more. Less = more.

My two cents.

[A Former User]

Thanks for the help with the storytelling presentation Alies and I did.

And I want to agree. The most successful talks I have done have been speaking to my slides when they are mainly pictures.

I have a good one for the revolving door of medicine, and the burden of disease, though disease sounds so 1900's

[A Former User]

Carolyn, Susan,

Thanks for these useful tips. I too, have found that the fewer the words, the better.

Too much visual clutter on a slide, and your audience is not really paying attention to what you are saying.

[A Former User]

Bingo Amy!