Slow practices of remembering care in a mental health day centre

Calabria, V ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8823-8192, 2025. Slow practices of remembering care in a mental health day centre. In: Memory Studies Association (MSA) Conference “Beyond crises: resilience and (in)stability”, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic, 14-18 July 2025.

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Abstract

This paper explores how slow memory practices can illuminate overlooked narratives in mental health care. Drawing on a participatory heritage project focused on a mental health day centre with a fifty-year legacy, the paper will discuss how slow practices of remembering were embraced as both method and ethic in uncovering individual and collective understandings of care over time. Through slow, deliberate processes of remembering, such as group memory work, co-produced artworks, and storytelling, the project foregrounded the lived experiences of mental health service users. These slow practices fostered safe, creative spaces for participants to express nuanced memories, leading to the co-creation of several art and heritage works, and public engagement events that revealed subtle shifts in perception over time. The paper argues that slow practices of remembering offer a powerful counter-narrative to the dominant policy-driven history of mental healthcare, highlighting uneven care developments that offer critical insights into past care practices. The paper considers the transformative impacts of these methods for mental health service users and professionals, revealing insights into the complexities of mental healthcare over time and space that challenge the common trope of progress in policy terms. The paper argues that slow memory, as both concept and practice, can become a tool for social justice by enabling the emergence of memories that might otherwise remain hidden while also becoming a process and a vehicle for recognition and empowerment of people who rely on mental health systems.

Item Type:	Conference contribution
Creators:	Calabria, V.
Date:	July 2025
Identifiers:	Number Type 2522103 Other
Divisions:	Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by:	Jeremy Silvester
Date Added:	06 Nov 2025 09:26
Last Modified:	06 Nov 2025 09:26
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/54687

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