Access to Health Care
Access to Health Care:
Theatre of the Oppressed is used all over the world to display issues related to health. The choices regarding some of these issues are sometimes complex and difficult to make, and the consequences of these choices can lead to grave health problems.
TO involves its participant in an active way, so that they themselves can try out different potential solutions in search of a better choice. To give a few examples of our experience, in France and Morocco we used TO to work on the issue of sexual and reproductive health education, on the Comores Island on the issue of AIDS and in Kenya on the problem of malaria and cholera.
In Italy we have worked since 2011 with a Local Health Agency (ASL) in Rome on several issues, among which pathological addictions, adolescence, risk behavior etc. and in 2013 we started working in a project with the Superior Health Institute on sexual and reproductive health.
1) Work with the SERT ASL RMA health agency on substance addiction
– Training of SERT (Substance Abuse Service) workers. Creating a play (video not yet online)
– Work in prison with substance abuse victims (report)
– “Flash”, the play performed in a Therapeutic Community for substance abusers
2) Work on sexual and reproductive health
– Project with the Superior Health Institute all over Italy started in 2013
– Project with the Maroccan Family Planning (report in French)
– Project with UNICEF on the Comores Islands: Malaria, AIDS, Cholera
– Work in Marseille with the Family Planning agency in the schools and on the squares of the city
1) Work with the SERT ASL RMA health agency on substance addiction
– Training of SERT (Substance Abuse Service) workers. Video #5 in Italian
In 2011 and 2012 we conducted a training for the workers of several services of an ASL in Rome: SERT – DSM and Maternity/Children (nurses, doctors, psychiatrists, managers). The goal was to examine the dynamics of the working relationships between workers and users and their families in a playful way, including those between the workers themselves.We used TO to put it to the stage and the result was the play, “Flash”, which was performed later both for external people as for relatives of substance abusers of the Therapeutic Community.
This play shows the various problems which drag people down into addiction, the moments of attraction, the moment in which a relative or friend can still intervene and the – very delicate – moment in which it becomes the responsibility of a SERT. The daily challenges which have to be faced with in this Service and the answers presented to these problems by the workers and the Services were inserted into the scenes in such a way that the users themselves, from their point of view, were able to show what the workers could have done differently to improve these so very difficult situations.
– Work in prison with substance abuse victims
At the Regina Coeli prison, in collaboration with the ASL (Local Health Agency) and the Prisoner’s Rights Ombudsman Office of the Province of Lazio, and together with a SERT worker, we worked on the problems of prisoners. When did they started their career in crime, what attracted them to win them over and what temptations will they be faced with after release.This workshop has also produced a play and was later performed inside prison under the title “Welcome to the Grand Hotel”.-
– “Flash”, the play performed in a Therapeutic Community for substance abusers. Video in Italian #5
At the Villa Maraini we presented “Flash”; the play shows several potential scenarios on how a person might arrive at substance abuse, relationship problems, difficulties of how to leave the scene, the temptations offered by drugs and by the dealers and the health impact this situation causes, without ignoring the problems related to the illegality which are usually included. The play has given them the opportunity to intervene and show what a substance abuser can do under these circumstances, what can someone who wants to help them do, either a friend or relative or a SERT worker.The users of several Services (Intake Center, Orientation Center and the Therapeutic Community) were able to rehearse how to confront these various situations and prepare for what awaits them when they leave the Community. They were also able to show what attitude they would like to see among the people around them. And finally they showed how the doctors of SERT should intervene.
2) Work on sexual and reproductive health
– Project with the Superior Health Institute all over Italy started in 2013
Talking about sexual and reproductive health can be very delicate and provoke situations which are complex to manage. Offering predefined information, treating the receivers of this information as ignorant is liable to complicate the intervention even more.With Forum Theatre we enact situations in which decisions are made related to sexual and reproductive health. We show unsolved problems, in which a protagonist makes problematic decisions. The audience will then come and show what could have been done. Generally, with Theatre of the Oppressed and Forum Theatre in particular, we don’t offer a predefined truth.
It is the audience which offers the solutions, always different ones, depending on the situation. Through this it is shown that every situation requires a clear assessment and an appropriate decision. These interventions are often done in the presence of experts who afterwards can offer information which haven’t emerged during the play, but always relating to the curiosity and the needs of the audience.
– Project with the Maroccan Family Planning (report in French)
The project, in collaboration with ‘Research and Cooperation’ and the Moroccan Family Planning agency was carried out in Oujda, close to the Algerian border. It involved young nurses and other volunteers, and using the Image Theatre technique and theatrical improvisation we first did research to understand what could be the situations in which people could intervene that had to do with choices on sexual and reproductive health in this particular context. We then identified prejudices, false ideas and the problems encountered to gain access to correct information.On these issues we then created scenes showing the obstacles, the traps in which young Moroccans may be caught in because of misinformation or ignorance, also showing them the grave consequences wrong choices might lead to.
This play, performed on the beach on the coast in summer, has created a suitable space to reflect on these issues, and subsequently rehearsing collectively on stage how you can find a better way to deal with very difficult choices in your lives. Below you can read the report of the project and the description of the play:
– Project with UNICEF on the Comores Islands: Malaria, AIDS, Cholera
In collaboration with UNICEF and the newspaper Kashkasi, we carried out a project on the Comores Islands related to various problems pertaining to health issues in general, with particular attention to sex and reproductive health education. The spreading of STI (AIDS, Syphilis etc.) is related to prejudices, taboos, misinformation or ignorance.Involving young people from both urban and rural areas, we wanted to enact some of these situations in which so many issues emerge. Forum Theatre allows us to put problematic situations on stage, showing the critical aspects without transferring a predefined ‘truth’ and/or any indications regarding adequate behavior or solutions.
Hence, although the issues were delicate to deal with in an Islamic community, we decided to perform right on the exit of mosques and both the community and the religious leaders not only haven’t shown any sign of being shocked by this initiative but, on the contrary, supported the decisions made collectively on the square, through the interventions of the participants which were recognized as effective.
– Work in Marseille with the Family Planning agency in the schools and squares of the city
The play “Silence, ils s’aiment” (Quiet, they love each other) was performed perhaps more than a thousand times in schools in Marseille. It is the story about a 16-year old girl who wants to start her first sexual relationship and therefore asks and searches for advice about how to behave. For this reason she turns to the family doctor who doesn’t take her seriously and refuses to prescribe the pill.So she tries to talk to her mother, pretending to talk about a friend of hers. Her mother is shocked because her friend would have sex at just 16 years old and breaks off the conversation. She then turns to a friend who convinces her that men don’t like to use condoms and that she would risk to ruin her first relationship by using them. Finally when she tries to talk to the boyfriend about the options for safe sex, he seems uninterested as if the problem wouldn’t concern him and even refuses to take an STI test.
The story finishes with him refusing to use a condom and her, like one woman out of three in France has to face an abortion. This play does not suggest answers but allows every participant to reflect the various choices that this story offers. You can rehearse trying to convince your partner of the need to use a condom, that using it doesn’t mean it will ruin the sexual experience, or even convince him of taking a control test etc.
Promoting adequate and conscious choices in sexual and reproductive health by a couple, avoiding, as it so often happens, to put the burden solely on the back of the woman, who has to bear the load and who will maybe in the end be accused of murder when she decides to have an abortion.