By Tessa & Hong Liang
Coming into the last week of Groundwork, Showtime finally has their chance to shine with their sessions concluding over the weekends. From popular music and ballads that hold hidden messages, to deep and intriguing films that provokes introspection and reflection, to even memes with dark humour that may bring a guilty chuckle at first, but lead one to ruminate on the matter discussed. Showtime has shown us many creative ways to facilitate a discussion on the intricacies of mental health, and successfully wowed some of our fellow USP friends with their presentations.
Now that the project is behind us, we did an interview with one of the creative minds behind one of the showtime sessions in order to get a closer look at their experience and what they have gained throughout their journey:
Q: Why did you join groundwork?
I joined Groundwork because I like interacting face to face with others.
I had experience with facilitating Scratch workshops in the past with a variety of age groups. Volunteering to help out with the Scratch Workshops was a route that I was comfortable with and I felt that I wanted to do something before university started. Meanwhile, I am intrigued by the values USP emphasizes on. Therefore, volunteering for Showtime came naturally as I believed in the purpose of Showtime: To get myself and others to think critically about the topic of mental health.
Q: How did you manage to come up with the various showtime discussion sessions?
My group thought that it would be interesting to highlight how individuals plagued by mental health illnesses perceive the world. We came up with two seemingly disparate topics which are discreetly tied to a common theme to attract the attention of our audience and subsequently after piquing the interest of the audience, we encouraged them to share and discuss their views on several statements made about mental health.
Q: What message do you aim to spread through the various groundwork initiatives?
I think society today acknowledges that mental health is an issue which we should prioritize. We understand that more needs to be done. Yet, I believe most are unable to perceive the severity of the topic and are underestimating how much knowledge society is lacking on when it comes to helping others with mental health issues. Mental health will be an increasingly prevalent problem for society following the next few decades and everyone should try to be more educated to curb this issue.