Big Trauma, Big Change

The current mental health system is failing. Outside the privileged metropolitan areas, there is little or no support for those dealing with trauma, suicidality and ongoing distress. Unprocessed trauma costs the nation around $25 billion a year.

Some 65% of Australians with mental health needs don’t access clinical support and most people who die by suicide don’t reach out at all.

The World Health Organization, the United Nations and the Australian Productivity Commission all agree that we need an approach that moves beyond the medical model.

Scientia Professor Jill Bennett, Founder of the Big Anxiety Research Centre (BARC): “We need to ask why we treat mental health as purely a disorder of the brain rather than something that is profoundly linked to experience, trauma, culture and community.”

“The biggest problem with mainstream treatment of suicide prevention and mental health is the institutionalised environments that people are put in to try to treat their illnesses.” Aaron Blades, artist, cultural facilitator and Mandandanji man, from Changing Our Ways, 2023, feature film on BARC’s work.

The future of mental health depends on empowering people and communities. Big Trauma, Big Change, a project within BARC, works closely with communities to reimagine support for mental health and trauma and to develop accessible resources to enable big change, in ourselves and in the world.

Rather than treating people for disorders, Big Trauma, Big Change offers inspiration, discovery and validation, using experiential media, such as virtual reality (VR), to engage the senses and emotions, and to explore the questions that enable growth and transformation:

• How do we change the way we feel inside when we are broken and disconnected?
• How do we connect to ourselves, to community, to culture and to Country?
• How do we build a viable alternative to “the system” – a culture that is supportive and sustaining, that fills us with awe, hope and wonder, and offers genuine practical help?

In one day, we can bring a community together. In ten minutes, we can be transformed by a powerful immersive experience.

Prof. Bennett, BARC: “Big Trauma, Big Change is prefiguring a world where services are holistic, led by lived experience and embedded in culture and in community. We fill a gap that’s created by a medical model that has traditionally excluded experience.”

“What we’re trying to create is a bottom-up approach to health and healing that’s Indigenous-led.” - Marianne Wobcke, midwife, workshop facilitator and Girrimay woman.

• Ngaanyatjarra, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara Women’s Council [NPYWC]
• Queensland Mental Health Commission
• Mawarnkarra Health Services, WA
• Waminda Aboriginal Health Centre, NSW
• Youturn Youth Mental Health Service, Queensland
• We Al-li
• Githabul community, Warwick
• Momentum Health
• Leigh Place aged care
• Whiddon Group
• Out the Back Ventures [OTB]
• TOA Japan
• Bridging Hope Charity Foundation

“As soon as I saw [the approach], I knew that this was something really different, a really powerful tool, it was helping us as a community think differently about mental health.” Ben McKinnon, Addiction and Mental Health Services, Queensland Health.

BARC developed the first VR for suicide prevention. They have delivered award-winning Artificial Intelligence (AI), Augmented Reality (AR) and VR for trauma support through transformative community programs and at large-scale festivals across Australia.

Their immersive tools and community programs have been proven to work in a remarkably short time frame:

Brisbane participant: “It’s like doing ten years of therapy in one morning.”

Warwick (a regional town in Queensland) participant: “It’s maybe ten years of growth in a very short time.”

The project is currently working with communities in regional, rural and remote areas to develop the tools they need to make change.

“Using immersive technology radically changes the way we connect, feel and experience the world. Working from the bottom up and delivering these powerful experiences to communities does change people’s worlds, inside and out.”

BARC has an unparalleled track record of developing creative ways to work with trauma. They recognise that people are experts in their own lives with agency over their futures.

Project Lead: Jill Bennett
Project Manager: Annie Zhao (current) & Jenni Tyler (past)
Research Collaborator: Gail Kenning 
Design Strategist: Chloe Cassidy 
Spatial and experience specialist: Katherine Bond
Lead Immersive Designer: Volker Kuchelmeister
Art & Design Student Collaborator: Alina Wirtz

Partner with this project and be a part of big change. Immerse yourself in hope. It’s time to invest in people and a better future.

“We’re looking at how we can equip people with powerful immersive tools that support them to work with very complex feelings of distress and memories of trauma.”