COPE

COPE aims to help people with PTSD to live with their mental condition and to raise people's awareness of PTSD. The form of this project includes an animation and a toolkit. The animation provides a future scenario where the audience can feel safe and thrive. The toolkit is a one-day diary for a person with PTSD that invites them to interact, knowing that they are not alone, and they can get better.

Animation

The animation was inspired by the future imagination research by Adam Brown, who teaches psychology at The New School. Throughout the design process, I was able to get insights from him and the Trauma and Global Mental Health Lab.

“Future imagination” refers to our predictions about the things that lay ahead. The study found that people with PTSD are more trauma-focused when imagining their future. The reason is that many people think that PTSD is caused by bad memories, which is mostly true. However, it is also caused by the expectation that these bad things are going to happen again and again.

What if we can show them a safe future and give them an experience of living in a future scenario where they feel confident and safe? This might be enough to help them recover from PTSD without even dealing with the traumatic memories.

Toolkit

This pop-up book is a PTSD patient’s one-day diary that asks them to share their thoughts and feelings throughout the day. Attached to the back of the toolkit, there is a piece of bubble wrap and a trauma kit, which the reader can use when needed.

Trigger

“Control”, “Transparency”, “Prediction”, are the three key elements that can help people with PTSD to feel safe. Control means letting the patients know that they always have the control to pause or leave the current situation. Transparency means the operations and decisions are conducted with transparency to build and maintain trust. And prediction means to make things as predictable as possible, to make the patient feel safe.

Everything can be a trigger to someone. It is okay to feel not okay. And it is okay to ask for help. So if you feel triggered, uncomfortable, or need any support:

>> ISTSS
>> FIND A CLINICIAN
>> GETTING HELP

Future Study / Looking for Collaboration

In the future, I will focus on the possibility of creative art therapy to help children who don’t have tools to verbalize their trauma. I am currently looking for collaborators. So let’s get in touch!

Contact: suw150@newschool.edu

Designer/Director| Taylor Su
Animation Music| B. Shichi Liu
Narrator| Sarah Blades
Advisors| John Roach, Barbara Morris, Aya Karpińska, Louisa Campbell

Special Thanks|
Dae Young Kim, Mia Meus, Molly Burke,
Adam Brown, Andrew Shea, Valerie Lin