Innovative podcast program at CAMH is helping patients talk about mental health

We know that communication and conversation play a key role in recovery and serve an important function in mental health. One innovative program at CAMH is helping patients improve their communication skills by using podcasts to facilitate discussion.

“Our clients are sometimes more isolated from the outside world, and they can miss out on some of the developments that technology has to offer,” says Recreation Therapist Megan Duquette. She started this program as a pilot project in the CAMH Forensic Unit, which treats people who have come into contact with the law and are at the hospital for treatment of their mental illness and/or addiction. Inpatients in forensics are subject to increased levels of security, with the goal of recovery, rehabilitation and eventual re-integration into the community. 

The initial group of participants consisted mainly of older men, many of whom had limited experience with new media. Megan decided to use podcasts as a medium because it offered a lower barrier of entry, and initially had to explain it to them by relating it to an online talk radio show. 

“The aim is for clients to move through the system. Many of them move from a medium secure unit to a general unit and gain access to technology like cellphones and the internet,” says Megan. “And maybe some of the patients don’t even know what a podcast is. They don’t know that it’s something they can use to learn about topics they have an interest in.” 

It ended up being an effective platform for discussion and learning that resonated very well with the group.

To help with the project, she sought the assistance of Mobile Arts Programming, a non-profit that works with organizations to facilitate audio recording. Over the years, MAP has engaged with CAMH through various programs for patients. 

MAPping it out

“We’re essentially like a recording studio on wheels,” says John Baker, one half of the duo who serves as Facilitators for MAP. “We have recording equipment, iPads and headphones that the clients use. “We’ve been sitting on this (podcast facilitation) idea for years, and the folks at CAMH Gifts of Light knew that we had a curriculum, but it wasn’t until Megan approached us where we found the right opportunity.” 

“It was helpful for me because I was originally going to have to write a framework to develop this program, and I was just reaching out to John and Wes to help with the recording,” says Megan. 

The program came together through a perfect, synchronistic storm of ideas and experience. 

With a willing group of participants, Megan’s clinical expertise and MAP’s technical know-how, the only major obstacle was the ongoing pandemic, which posed some challenges.

“The first three months of this program were all virtual. We went through a whole process with the clients, teaching all about podcasting – teaching them what it is, what it looks like, how to go about creating it from a tech perspective, from a narrative perspective. We covered all those bases,” says Wes Grove, who is the other Facilitator in the program. Both John and Wes have extensive experience in music and recording, but also have a lot of experience running arts-based care and support programs.

“Because I worked in an inpatient unit, I was able to be in the same room with our clients,” says Megan. “John and Wes would then join us on a Webex call and the three of us would then facilitate the sessions. Our clients were very receptive and weren’t too fussed about the virtual aspect because they’ve been doing virtual programs already.” The clients were so engaged that they dove into the work, and she jokes that “once the sessions had started, my main job was to hit record and save. Eventually the clients were just interviewing each other. It happened so out of the blue and so organically that I was blown away at their progress.”  

“When we were finally able to meet in person, we took that to the next level. We engaged with the clients, and they were the ones who came up with the topics, the questions, themes and they had the autonomy to share their perspectives on certain topics, but also to bring in some of their lived experience,” says Wes.

(Pod)Casting a wider net

We spend a lot of effort interacting with others – conveying feelings, ideas, stories, opinions and facts hundreds of times a day. But communication is a skill that many people take for granted. One that takes practice and repetition to improve; a skill that is constantly being refined by the direct and indirect interactions we have. This has changed a lot since the pandemic, and technology has played a role in how we communicate. 

For a Recreation Therapist whose job is to find ways to engage with the patient in creative ways that also facilitate recovery and support their treatment, the podcast idea made a lot of sense. “We talk with our clients all the time about their life and their experiences,” says Megan. “To then produce and record a podcast and have a tangible creation for our clients that we also don’t have to physically store, and won’t clutter their room is very helpful.”

Megan has since transferred to a Concurrent Youth unit at CAMH, and she’s expanded the program to include her new patients. 

“I ran the group (in the Concurrent Youth program) because I overheard a client talking about wanting to create a podcast once they left hospital. I slipped into the conversation and told them about the group. They were super excited about the idea and the groups focus on mental health.”

Facilitating a Unit for youth who had more experience with technology and an interest in podcasts made things easy to facilitate. 

“They opened up easily. In the episode, they talk about how/what brought them to CAMH, how they ended up on CYU, and their overall experience with their journey in the mental health system.” 

On the next episode… 

Looking ahead, Megan envisions the program to continue to grow, with the hope that it becomes accessible to more patients through the hospital’s Therapeutic Neighbourhood. 

The recordings that were produced during the initial run are not accessible to the public like traditional podcasts, to protect the privacy of patients. However for patients, they serve as a source of pride to those who contributed in their production, a reminder of their accomplishments during their time at CAMH, and for some, may serve as an entry point as either a consumer or creator of podcasts in the future. 

Many of us see podcasts as a source of information, entertainment, discussion, opinion and fact. It’s often something we turn to during our downtime, during our commute, or while doing menial tasks like walking the dog or doing the dishes. 

But at CAMH, staff and partners are proactively using the medium to foster deeper engagement between patients and clinicians, helping them gain confidence in speaking to others, and finding alternative ways to listen and be heard. 

Programs like this are possible thanks to support and funding from CAMH Gifts of Light. By giving to Gifts of Light, donors help to support innovative initiatives to improve patient experience and promote recovery.