The 4th IEEE International Conference on E-Health and Bioengineering - EHB 2013

Grigore T. Popa University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Iaşi, Romania, November 21-23, 2013

978-1-4799-2373-1/13/$31.00 ©2013 IEEE

MyStory – Digital Kit for Story Telling as a Therapy

Colibaba Cristina Anca Preventive Medicine and Interdisciplinary

Gr.T.Popa University & EuroEd Foundation Iasi, Romania

Colibaba Stefan

Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures Al. I. Cuza University & EuroEd Foundation

Iasi, Romania

Petrescu Lucia Centre for European Integration

EuroEd Foundation Iasi, Romania

Abstract— MyStory is a EU project which develops on intergenerational learning focusing on the therapeutic effect of story-telling for the elderly and on the socializing opportunities for the young, “internet savvy”, generation. MyStory encourages valorization of the tacit knowledge of both seniors and young people. The collection of films and interviews developed in the project provides materials which can be successfully employed in the study of various academic fields such as the history of medicine. The study of medicine and the understanding of key principles which govern a successful practice of medicine are enhanced by the use of this repository of testimonials. This article presents the manner in which MyStory can be and has been valorized for therapy with seniors as well as within the context of history of medicine courses.

Keywords—life stories; therapy; intergenerational learning.

I. INTRODUCTION MyStory is a KA3 ICT project co-financed by EACEA and

implemented in an international team which includes five countries: Romania, UK, Finland, Slovenia and Lithuania. The project was initially developed as a result of the growing gap between the generation of the seniors and the young generation, the generation “Y”. The main goal of the project is to valorize the tacit knowledge of these two beneficiary groups and to raise their awareness upon the potential they hold within what they consider to be merely simple memories or virtual socializing skills.

Project implementation, however, developed these plans and turned them into a much more inclusive approach. As interviews were being taken, the team became aware of the value they can carry for third beneficiaries who were not initially envisaged in the project such as universities of

medicine and students studying the history of medicine. It is the added value of such initiatives to reach the point where they become relevant for a large variety of groups, retaining nevertheless their relevance and utility despite the differences between them.

II. PROJECT GOALS The primary goal of the project was to obtain a higher

degree of social integration of the two categories of subjects, a transfer of technical knowledge from the teenagers to the elderly, and a transfer of life experience from the elderly to the teenagers. By approaching the issue from a therapeutic point of view, we create favorable contexts for a socio-therapy for social reintegration [1]. Through this project, we do not intend to make use of psychotherapy because psychotherapy techniques have to be applied carefully by specialists such as psychologists, doctors, psychiatrists, social workers or counselors. We only seek to create a situation allowing communication and interaction, developed for psychological, and more precisely, socio-therapeutic purposes. In other words, we alter artificially the social environment in order to obtain, among other things, a greater level of social integration for the targeted subjects. Obviously, by both reducing social isolation and increasing self-esteem, this eventually leads to an improvement in people’s psychological balance.

This is done with the use of ICT technology which the elderly are too little familiarized with. MyStory project suggests on the one hand the introduction of the story telling technique in hospitals with the support of volunteers or assistant medical students using the necessary technical equipment and, on the other hand, the use of the MyStory online resources for the improvement of the patients’ quality of life [2].

As a consequence of the repeated interactions between the elderly subjects and the teenagers in the context of collecting, transcribing, processing and publishing the stories of the former’s lives on the platform, we have expected a series of socio-therapeutic effects to be produced upon the parties involved as follows:

A. Upon the elderly/seniors: • Reducing the feeling of social isolation by the simple

presence of the teenagers and their repeated interaction, and through the opportunities provided by the use of computers and surfing the internet.

• At the same time, the social networks will be extended, especially if the seniors who participate in the project are offered the chance to meet one another for several common activities and because the platform offers the opportunity to be offered feedback and to socialize in the virtual environment.

• Increasing self-esteem of the elderly. Self-esteem was increased through the belief that their past stirred the young people’s curiosity, that one’s life contains an experience which is worth being shared, and that it can become sociably visible through publishing.

• Decreasing dependency. Sometimes dependency is related to the access to information. Learning how to use a computer and to navigate the internet partly solves this problem.

The story of one’s life as the main discussion topic is close to narrative therapy, but it is not the same. In the case of narrative therapy, the therapist starts the client’s story and focuses on restructuring the narrative identity in order to tackle the client’s psychological problems. Compared to this, MyStory interviews simply guide story tellers on those topics which are more attractive for the listeners and, at the same time, they build on the teller’s feeling that their story is of interest to the listener and to the future viewers of the MyStory films.

III. PROACTIVE TRANSITION As recent research shows and surrounding reality

illustrates, the overall aging of the global population and the increase in the life expectancy create a situation in which a new set of activities needs to be offered to the newly retired people. Transition from an active live to personal time which does not necessarily provide recognition of professional expertise or self-value is a critical period. Aging involves multiple changes of which the most important are biological, psychological, cultural and social changes.

The biological changes associated with aging include physical changes (becoming stooped, going gray, etc.) or body and mental degradation as a result of diseases specific for this age group such as Alzheimer or cardiac attacks. Psychological changes most often include progressive mental and intellectual deterioration associated with a precarious health condition.

Simultaneously with the aging process there are many changes related to work and retirement, limited economic

resources, social isolation, cases of maltreatment, deterioration of the social status and self-esteem. If we move from the individual to the collective level, research shows that there is an unequal treatment of various age groups, namely, the third age discrimination. As for sexism and racism, this form of discrimination is rooted in physical characteristics. In fact, the devaluation of older people is based on stereotypes in that the term “old people” is used to describe a category of people rather than individuals. Basically, there is no difference between healthy people and those with physical and mental afflictions; they are all included in the same stereotype. Then, health and physical differences are associated with other features, "old people" becoming the generally selfish, outdated mentality, resistant to change, a burden to society, etc. The error is that while some elderly people fit those characteristics, others are just the opposite. Therefore, such an unfair generalization underpins a discriminatory attitude. As the number of the retired people increases, they need to be offered an alternative occupation which would guarantee a constant high level of self-esteem and at the same time engage beneficiaries in a dynamic way so as to valorize their expertise and experience, be it professional or life experience itself. The key aspects in such an approach are:

• Proactive attitude at the level of the local community to create opportunities to reactivate retired people and to provide them with the contexts, tools and collaborators for relevant and meaningful socializing.

• Recognition of their professional expertise and life experience which the young generations can value and utilize for their own benefit.

• Meaningful intake of new knowledge and development of new abilities which would help bridge the intergenerational gap. This is achieved through activities meant to keep the spirit and mind active, agile and fully involved. These are a set of practical tools to delay the aging effects on the brain.

All these aspects are considered by MyStory project and addressed by the activities and deliverables. The seniors participating in the project activities have been involved in intergenerational collaboration based on their needs and expectations. In all the project countries activities have been developed and implemented to train seniors in basic computer and internet usage. The training sessions were tailored to the specific context and previous IT knowledge of the beneficiaries and were focused on offering meaningful input, not just technological information.

But the real therapeutic effect came at the stage of interview taking and story-telling. The technique of story-telling has been recognized as a means of granting elderly people the chance of looking back and sharing their life experience to young people. Through this they gain either a new understanding and perspective upon their own lives or benefit from having their story listened to and understood by a generation who did not experience the same social- historic context.

IV. STORY TELLING The MyStory partnership developed a Digital Story Telling

Kit which guides those interested in using interviewing and story collecting for its therapeutic effect. From a theoretical perspective [3], there are certain levels which can be identified in story-telling. MyStory project only focuses and uses level one. However, for the sake of coherence, all five levels (0-4) are presented below.

A. The 0 degree of life history corresponds to a life without memory and with a personal expression which does not exceed the immediate timeframe. This is the pathological case of amnesiacs, or of any other

case of depersonalization which involves the elimination of the construction of personal temporality. In order to exit such a situation a crisis is needed. This is the only way to initiate first person discourse and also to reflect, select and analyze words and memories.

B. The first stage includes the everyday stories, i.e., current practices. Although very common, this is a fairly little explored level

which actually includes various forms of story-telling and memories sharing. Intergenerational activities are one of these forms with a strong bond to family memory. They usually imply verbal communication between parents and children, but the one with the greater intergenerational information transfer is that between grandparents and grandchildren. This often relates to family origin, family connections and past family life. Children’s curiosity and seniors’ willingness to share their stories represents a very good opportunity to rewind past events; in other words, life stories. Beyond the emotional charge of such moments, we have to identify the moment of intergenerational communication, especially in its genealogical component. Another form is represented by intragenerational discussion among individuals belonging to the same age group. Anniversary moments are another occasion which people use to go back on their lives and share life experience from various perspectives. “Material marks” represents another form of this first level which includes documents, diplomas, photographs, videos etc. The last form this level embodies is the “professional summary” of life, the CV.

C. The second step is the level of “cultural life practices”. This level implies a much more formal approach to story-

telling. Those parts which were primarily aural and informal tend to become written and are eventually turned into a filmed form. This level also includes various other forms of manifestation. Commemoration and speech are at the boundaries of daily life and cultural life (we identify the same ambiguity in the fact that they can be both oral and written) and they represent intermediary rituals which refer to a person whose life is strongly connected to that of the community. This should not be judged by its artistic qualities but rather as a product of a cultural or historical era illustrated from a personal angle and situation. Sometimes these (auto) biographies offer the necessary freedom of expression to people without a high formal education. Interviews on the radio together with

documentaries often present life stories from an educational point of view or even for entertainment, whilst not necessarily boasting any aesthetic dimension. This is the case of the MyStory collection of stories.

D. The third level uses life stories in specific professional practices has lately become more and more frequent. Within this context, if we take a step back from using life

stories strictly for their methodological purpose, we find that life stories are and have always been an instrument of power and of social manipulation, which may result in a critical look upon practices and institutions.

E. The fourth level relates to research practices within socio-anthropological sciences. This level is currently the main level in the context of life

history; in the last twenty years, all sciences, anthropology, ethnology, sociology, social psychology and history have used such research practices within their domains.

TABLE I. STAGES IN STORY TELLING

Level

Table Column Head Characteristics

E. research practices within socio-anthropological sciences

D. stories within specific professional practices

C. “cultural life practices”

B. everyday stories, i.e,. current practices

A. life without memory and a personal expression

Fig. 1. Summary of the five stages in story telling

In the project MyStory the researchers carefully prepared the collection of life stories.

Collecting life stories presupposes certain stages in the preparation and implementation of the interviews so as to fully exploit the full therapeutic effect of the technique. In order to balance the educational function of the stories with the socio- anthropological function we divided the life story in two parts, preferably corresponding to two different meetings of the interviewer with the interviewee.

In the first meeting the subject was invited to talk in the standard form, with a recommendation to tell their life story fully assured that they may talk freely, with no supplementary questions. In the second meeting, the interviewer used a list of questions, the interview guide, consisting of general topics of interest compiled by researchers. These two parts are very cohesive: the first part allows the subjects to express themselves unreservedly, and in the second part the subject is

given the opportunity to describe the world in which they live, the events they have participated in, etc.

V. STEPS IN STORY COLLECTING The first step is to identify the subjects. The target groups

are senior citizens and high-school students. They have to meet our project’s criteria. For seniors, it is advisable that they live in different regions, different environments (urban/rural), and have had different jobs and education backgrounds. Generally, the elderly are eager to communicate and share their own experience. In comparison, the same cannot be said of teenagers. For them, contact with adults and with the elderly is more complicated, though they can be motivated by the interesting stories and insights into the past that the older generation can offer, as well as by approaching the entire project as a game or by offering motivational compensations to contributing students.

The second step is facilitating contact among the selected subjects. The project brings together a teenager and a senior who do not know each other before contact, or we start by choosing an adolescent and then try to find a retired acquaintance or a relative with whom to arrange their interview.

However, when using two participants meeting for the first time the degree of compatibility between the interlocutors is evaluated: language used, cultural attitudes, etc. in order to avoid potential conflict. The first meeting is often crucial, that is why it has to be carefully planned in order to initiate a good relationship between the two persons.

The first meeting should be preceded by a phone call addressed to the identified story teller in the presence of a common acquaintance who helped with the selection of the subject. In this context, or during the first face to face meeting, the story teller is informed about the goal of the project, about the fact that the story will be recorded and that the findings will be published, but not without the consent of the story tellers. Moreover, subjects are informed of the possibility of keeping their name unknown and using a fictitious name instead.

The fourth step is getting on with the biographical interview. This can be done from the very first meeting if the relationship is considered comfortable enough or can be postponed for a later meeting, if need be. The subjects should therefore be consulted on the conditions and environment so that they feel at ease. As we mentioned before, in order to facilitate the therapeutic and socio-anthropological effects of the life stories they must be broken down into two parts which preferably correspond to two different sessions.

The fifth step consists of carrying out the second part of the biographical interview. It should take place during another meeting in order to have enough time, prior to this step, to listen to the recording and write down any possible inconsistencies, chronological gaps or interesting topics insufficiently covered. For the second part of the interview, the standard interview frame was used, to which the interviewer’s own questions were added to our own questions raised through the direct interaction with a particular subject.

VI. STORY HISTORY OF MEDICINE MyStory database [4] includes a number of interviews/

films with great personalities of the Romanian medical school such as: Professor Victor Tacu (internal medicine and cardiology), Professor Enescu (dermatology), Professor Răşcanu (internal medicine), Professor Moruzi (neurosurgery), Professor Bu�ureanu (surgery), Professor Rainer (anthropology), Professor Bejan (balneology).

These materials, direct and indirect testimonies relative to some famous names in medical history, could through their very specific nature successfully complement the History of Medicine course in Iasi and other medical schools in the country. They illustrate success stories and, in addition, provide key information while explaining epochal discoveries, decisions and actions with a great impact on the medical reality of today, both nationally and internationally.

Such films are meant to support proactive attitudes and planning a career in medicine with the help of examples of personalities who generously agreed to offer original testimonies interweaving their personal and professional life, speaking about effort and dedication, about the complexity of a life dedicated to medicine.

CONCLUSIONS MyStory uses the therapeutic effect of story-telling not only

for its direct benefits upon the elderly. The products developed in the project can be put to good account by a great diversity of other groups. MyStory collection of films includes materials on a range of topics among which: history of medicine, traditions, arts, professions, memories. Selected groups of third beneficiaries have already started to valorize these products in class (at secondary level and in universities), for research or as materials illustrative of various ages and socio-historical perspectives.

REFERENCES

[1] MyStory project, “Digital Story Telling Kit”, Project no. 511641-LLP-1-2010-1-RO-KA3-KA3MP

[2] K. Hampton, L. Sessions Goulet, E. Ja Her, L. Rainie, “2009 Social Isolation and New Technology Pew Internet Project”, Nov 2009 202.419.4500

[3] G. W. Burns, “101 Healing Stories”, John Wiley & Sons, 2001, review by E. Keegan on Jan 28th 2003

[4] MyStory Gallery of Stories - http://www.mystories.eu/stories/