Publications

Read a summary of my current book: click the link

CSSMH Summary Roberta McDonnell 2014

Read a sample chapter: click the link

Creativity and Social Support in Mental Health: Service Users’ Perspectives [April 2014],

UK: Palgrave Macmillan

 

Creativity and Social Support in Mental Health explores service users’ lived experiences of mental health recovery within a day-centre setting where creative activity and social support were key aspects of the service. These two facets, creative activity and social support are established as conducive to mental health, particularly when in partnership with one another and when there is a venue in which to gather on a regular and frequent basis. McDonnell argues that the uplifting effects of creative activities such as art, music, and creative reading and writing (bibliotherapy), alongside the communality incorporated into the general ethos and social setting of many of the projects cited, are a positive force for change and that resource allocation and integrated care models should reflect this new paradigm. These findings are situated within a framework that takes into account current publicised debates on the nature of psychiatry and mental health care and suggests that creativity and social support are at least as important as mainstream medical treatment, especially within a recovery and health promotion model.

 

Read a Short Story by Roberta McDonnell

Reflexion 2009 CLASHED

Past Publications

• Check out my LinkedIn profile for papers and reports on mental health, research, short stories and fiction.

• My largest piece of published research is a report on research priorities for therapies professions in Ireland, at HRB 2010 

• Here’s a Poem published by Mused at  The Bella Online Literary Review http://www.bellaonline.com/review/issues/spring2008/p010.html

The Front Room

Rosed walls and green-glossed frames,
Then seems now and now seems then.
A chain of denizens,
Each an era etches.
Granda’s tea-bowl, blue encircled,
Held warmly in cupped hands.
On the nearby chair, a plastic-red basin,
Emitting its steamy, soaped vapour.
Then Beatle suits and Beatle boots-
Stove-hot iron and polish.
Granny’s messages on the road,
While Banana Splits entrance me.
Now, Granny’s “Ma”, green snuff scented,
Enscourged by wax and Paddy.
Last, tribute paid by family of three, within those walls of ardour.

Roberta McDonnell