Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #114882

Alexandra Bowers, MPH, MSW, Services Division, Boston University Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation, 940 Commonwealth Ave, West, Boston, MA 02215, 617-353-3549, abowers@bu.edu

The health of people with serious psychiatric illnesses has gone largely ignored. However, in recent years there has been an increasing focus on the integration of mental and physical health and a greater awareness of the higher morbidity and mortality of people living with a serious psychiatric illness in comparison to the general population. Understanding how consumers' “envision” their health (or lack of it) is vital to developing services that match people's stages of readiness to undertake lifestyle and health behavior changes that promote recovery. But what does the word “health” mean to people with a psychiatric illness, especially when many professionals frequently focus more on “sickness” and “disability”? This presentation will describe the process of photovoice as a strategy particularly well-suited to examining consumers' perspectives on their personal visions of health. Students of the Recovery Center at the Boston University Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation used cameras and structured narratives to try and “visualize” what health meant to them. They identified the personal and community resources or barriers that promote or inhibit pursuit of it. The presenter will highlight the themes that emerged from the project and the implications of these themes for the creation of a mental health service system that thinks creatively and holistically about the health as vital resource for recovery. According to the Declaration of Alma-Ata, health is a basic human right and limiting the opportunities of people with psychiatric illnesses to pursue it may prevent their full experience of recovery.

Learning Objectives:

• Participants will be able to describe the need for and importance of participatory reserach methods for understanding health and recovery for people living with a mental illness.
• Participants will understand the background, rationale for, and method of photovoice.
• Participants will learn how people recovering from a mental illness see or define their health and/or disability.
• Participants will learn how photovoice can be a strategy particularly well-suited to empowering people with mental illness to communicate their lived experiences of health and disability.
• Participants will be able to describe resources and obstacles in consumers' pursuits of health and wellness.
• Participants will understand how the themes from the project have implications for mental health services delivery and health promotion planning efforts.

Keywords: Photovoice, Mental Illness

Related Web page: www.bu.edu/cpr/photovoice

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Recorded presentation