Re-Reading Mental Illness : A Living Library as a Pedagogical Tool for Unlearning Stigma

Living with mental illness often results in varying levels and experiences of stigma. Stigmatizing experiences in health care settings are particularly detrimental because they cause reluctance to seek mental health care, which impedes recovery. While therapeutic recreation (TR) services and programs aim to support recovery, there is a gap in what we know about TR’s role in combatting the stigma of mental illness. To address this gap, this study examined the experiences of TR students who participated in a contact-based initiative known as a living library. This initiative provides opportunities for individuals living with mental illness to become living books and talk openly to readers about their experiences of illness and recovery. In this study, TR students undertook the role of readers. Findings highlight how students shifted their focus from the diagnosis to the person and started questioning their previously held stereotypes about mental illness. Findings also capture how the living library helped to contextualize students’ classroom learning by humanizing course material. We draw from these findings to demonstrate the merit of using contact-based approaches in TR to combat stigma of mental illness. This study has implications for practice and suggests that initiatives aimed at unlearning stigma can be impactful for TR students embarking on careers in health care settings that support the recovery of individuals living with mental illness.