A qualitative study of letters to President Kennedy from persons with mental illness and their families: using the research poem in policy oriented research

Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, Dec, 2007 by Rich Furman, Allison Shukraft

Using the research poem as a tool of data representation, this paper presents findings from an analysis of letters sent to President John F. Kennedy regarding the formulation of mental health policy during the early 1960s. The article presents the experiences of consumers of mental health services and their families--shapers and receivers of mental health provisions that are infrequently given voice. Traditional thematic analysis was conducted, and data subsequently were represented in three poetic forms: free verse, the pantoum, and the tanka.

Keywords: research poem, mental health policy, John F. Kennedy

Introduction

While it is true that statistical representations of social problems do influence policy development, it is equally true that affective data and more humanistic presentations may be as influential as "facts" (Smit, 2003). Prevailing social perceptions regarding a problem have been shown to be essential to how social policy decisions are shaped (Appelbaum, 2001). Policy decisions are also based heavily upon personal and socially constructed values. Values lie at the heart of differing political and social ideologies, and often underlie differences between political parties and social movements. Policy makers often make decisions based upon their own personal, moral and religious values (Caputo, 2005).

Emotions are heavily implicated in the formations of values (Gordon, 1965; Linzer, 1992). Emotional pleas from key constituents often do have an effect on various levels of the policy development process. Yet, too often policy research is disconnected from the voices of vulnerable populations that are affected by social policies. Giving voice to those without the power and/or privilege to express their experiences in public or professional forums is a growing objective of social research, and represents an important practice domain of social work advocates and researchers.

Numerous researchers have commented on the importance of presenting the lived experience of clients as fully and powerfully as possible (Reason, 1988; Richardson, 1992). However, studies that use thick, narrative descriptions to present these voices may often be too dense or long for easy consumption by key policy constituents. In order to have increased emotional impact on social policy formation, it is important that researchers develop methods that present the experiences of key constituents in a concise, consumable, and emotionally expressive manner.

Fortunately, post-modern researchers working on the boundary between the social sciences and the humanities have developed just such a tool: the research poem. Through various social science and literary tools, researchers have used the research poem to faithfully and consistently present data on international development (Furman, 2004a), the impact of cancer (Furman, 2004b), the experience of HW care providers (Poindexter, 2002), oppression and discrimination (Langer and Furman, 2004) and many other topics.

Using the research poem as a tool of data representation, this paper presents an analysis of letters sent to President John F. Kennedy regarding the formulation of mental health policy during the early 1960s. The article seeks to present the experiences of mental health consumers and their families--shapers and receivers of mental health services that are infrequently given voice. It should be noted that this article is less about social policy than it is about the presentation of the lived experience of those who are the targets and beneficiaries of social policy. It is the hope of this researcher that others will be encouraged to use similar methods in current social policy research.

Several key areas will be addressed. First, the research poem as a tool in qualitative social research will be explored. Second, the method used in this study will be explicated. Third, data will be presented in the form of three types of research poems: free verse, the pantoum, and tanka. Finally, implications for social and policy research will be presented.

The Research Poem

In order to present the voices of various constituencies, research methods must be adopted that preserve their lived experiences. Traditional research guided by a positivist epistemology attempts to quantify and categorize the opinions and beliefs of those being researched. Contrasted to the positivist approach is the research tradition developed by various post-modern scholars in multiple disciplines (Freedman & Combs, 1996; Gilgun, 1994). These scholars observed that reducing human experience to numerical representation often strips the meaning from these experiences (Janesick, 1994: Lincoln & Guba, 1985). For instance, one can say that a certain percentage of people support one policy over another. Yet numerical presentations lose the important affective and contextual data that can help policy analysts and human service practitioners understand the interplay of human value and desire in the policy making process. Also, numerical data may not stimulate the type of empathic reactions that more evocative methods may produce in the consumers of research.