From Bedside To Public Square: Illness Narratives, Advocacy And Public Policy

Date: 23 October, Friday | Time: 10:30 - 12:00 | Venue: Academia Room, L1-S3

Speakers: Prof May Oo Lwin, Asst Prof Rayner Tan, Mr David Gan & Ms Melissa Lim
Moderators: Assoc Prof Mok Yee Hui & Asst Prof Victoria Ekstrom

Programme Description:

Presentation 2 by Asst Prof Rayner Tan & Mr David Gan

Beyond 'Drug Addict': Narratives of Recovery through Research and Poetry

What becomes visible when we look beyond the label "drug addict" to the person whose life it attempts to contain?

This presentation brings together public health research, lived experience, and poetry to explore dimensions of addiction and recovery that extend beyond biomedical and behavioural frameworks. Through a dialogue between empirical research, personal narrative, and poetic inquiry, we examine the tensions between public understandings of addiction and the lived realities of those who experience it, including the intersecting experiences of stigma, recovery, and LGBTQ+ identity.

Learning Outcomes:

An understanding of the myriad of factors that shape risks of substance dependance
An appreciation of how trauma, life-course, family systems and intersectionality shape narratives of substance use and dependance
An affective or emotional shift that results from poetic transcription as a participatory, ethical and methodological commitment to platforming patient narratives

Format:

3 presentations (25 min x 3)
Q&A (15 min)