Braiding the Healing Gifts of Photovoice for Social Change: The Means Are Ends in the Making.

Photovoice is an important participatory action method for motivating social change. The potential for this change within the processes of the method remains under-explored. We present the voice and perspectives of three health promotion practitioners who have important connections to photovoice: a grandmother and co-founder of the method, a nurse from Wales, and an early adopter seeking change.

The path to good health: Shifting the dialogue and promoting social ecological thinking.

The purpose of our research was to assess whether an intervention could produce changes in critical consciousness (CC) relative to participants' understanding of social influences on health and individual health behaviors. The intervention was a 4-min animation, entitled The Path to Good Health , that described how factors in our social environment influence individuals in a variety of ways and thereby our health. We used the same sampling and intervention strategies with two discrete cohorts of participants (Initial study: June 2018,  = 249; Retest study: October 2019,  = 315), who were recruited and incentivized through Amazon's Mechanical Turk platform.

Development and validation of the 4-Factor Critical Consciousness Scale.

Assessment of critical consciousness among individuals can provide a proxy measure of the readiness of communities, and individual decision-makers within, for social changes that address root causes of ill health. Critical consciousness, as conceived by Paolo Freire, emerges as a consequence of praxis. This iterative, recursive process of reflection and co-created knowledge enables community members to identify salient issues and the actions they want to take to address those issues.

The Photovoice Decision Tree: Legal Considerations and Ethical Implications for Photographs and Captions.

This article presents a photovoice decision tree that serves as a guide for making lawful and ethical decisions during the portions of the photovoice process that involve photograph selection, caption development, and public display of photographs and captions. Lawful and ethical considerations encompass privacy of person, privacy of place, illegal acts and obscenity, defamation, representation of truth versus actual malice, and opinion versus assertion of fact, but do not address pursuing and obtaining institutional review board approval for photovoice projects and/or other important steps of photovoice projects that are beyond the scope of this article. The decision tree presumes that a comprehensive photo release process was completed with all photovoice participants and collected from any individual captured within a photograph.

Revisiting the Roots and Aims of Photovoice.

Since its introduction, photovoice has been implemented in numerous fields with a wide array of outcomes of interest, but has the method been implemented in a way that is consistent with its initial aims in mind? From Caroline Wang and Mary Ann Burris's initial 1994 project, photovoice has demonstrated power to harness visual imagery and stories within a participatory empowerment process and established a new tool for the profession for understanding community members' lived experience and needs, raising the critical consciousness of communities, and advocating for actions leading to social change. Based in Freirean philosophy, feminist theory, and documentary photography, photovoice engages community members to identify, represent, and change their community by means of photography, dialogue, and action. Public health can benefit when researchers and practitioners more carefully conceptualize the intended aims of each photovoice effort.

Rethinking Addiction.

Addiction is a complex and challenging condition with many contributing factors. Although addictive behaviors appear to be individual choices, behavior alterations cannot be addressed successfully without considering characteristics of the physical and social environments in which individuals live, work, and play. Exposure to chronic psychosocial stressors and the physiological response of individuals to their external environment activates the brain's neuroendocrine hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, with profound conditioning effects on behavior.

Disposal of prescription drugs by parents of middle and high school students.

To determine how parents dispose of unused prescription medications and correlates of disposal, we recruited 3,043 parents of adolescents to complete a survey. Multivariate and multinomial logistic regression was conducted to examine correlates of disposal of prescription medication. Only 17.

Diffusion of medication drop-boxes in North Carolina from 2007 to 2016.

Introduction: A permanent drug donation box ("drop-box") is one strategy implemented in communities across the United States to reduce the availability of excess controlled medications, including prescription opioids, for diversion. The objective of this study was to examine correlates of the diffusion and implementation of drop-boxes in North Carolina.

Methods: We assessed the number and location of drop-boxes implemented in North Carolina.

Developing a Web-based Tool Using Information and Communication Technologies to Expand the Reach and Impact of Photovoice.

Information and communication technologies are opening up vast new arenas for conducting the work of health promotion. Technology-based health promotions expand reach, standardize information and its delivery, provide opportunities for tailoring, create engaging interactivity within content delivery, provide for privacy and autonomy, improve portability, and lower delivery costs. This commentary describes the ongoing exploration and development of a web-based tool for enhancing the reach and impact of photovoice as a community change intervention.

Health literacy from the perspective of African immigrant youth and elderly: a PhotoVoice project.

Background: This project examines the views of African immigrants on health, access to health resources in the U.S., and perceived barriers to a healthy wellbeing faced by the elderly immigrants in the community.

Resilience of Vietnamese refugees: resources to cope with natural disasters in their resettled country.

Objective: Study findings suggest that refugees are more vulnerable than the general population to mental disorders from disasters. This pilot study explored the nature of Vietnamese refugees' resilience to a potential natural disaster as a first step toward improving their disaster mental health.

Methods: Interviews were conducted with 20 ethnic Vietnamese and Montagnard adult refugees using a semistructured interview guide.

Using the photovoice method to advocate for change to a campus smoking policy.

Objective: The authors used the photovoice method as a strategy for empowering students to advocate for change of a campus smoking policy.

Participants: Participants included 49 college students and 160 photo-exhibit attendees during spring 2011.

Methods: Students were trained in the use of the photovoice method and a public exhibit was used to educate the campus community and advocate for change.

Quantifying littered cigarette butts to measure effectiveness of smoking bans to building perimeters.

Objective: The authors estimated the number of violations of a university policy that prohibited smoking within 25 ft of all campus buildings.

Participants: The project was conducted by 13 student researchers from the university and a member of the local public health department.

Methods: Students quantified cigarette butts that were littered in a 30-day period inside the prohibited smoking area of 7 campus buildings (large residential hall, small residential hall, administrative building, 2 academic buildings, campus cafeteria, and student union).

A university system-wide qualitative investigation into student physical activity promotion conducted on college campuses.

Purpose: This study aimed to examine college student physical activity promotion.

Design: A cross-sectional approach to qualitative research was used.

Setting: Southeastern state university system.

Framing photovoice using a social-ecological logic model as a guide.

Photovoice is a community-based participatory action research method designed to uncover the root causes of community problems and to collectively address them. Individual change and empowerment are desired outcomes of the photovoice process, but more importantly, the process seeks to engage groups and whole communities to foster positive systems change. This article presents a logic model informed by the social-ecological model of health to guide photovoice planners and participants in planning activities that produce individual-and community-level change.

Promoting community preparedness: lessons learned from the implementation of a chemical disaster tabletop exercise.

Health educators are frequently called on to facilitate community preparedness planning. One planning tool is community-wide tabletop exercises. Tabletop exercises can improve the preparedness of public health system agencies to address disaster by bringing together individuals representing organizations with different roles and perspectives in specific disasters.

Identifying culturally appropriate strategies for educating a Mexican immigrant community about lead poisoning prevention.

Lead paint is one source of exposure for lead poisoning; however, recent Latino and other immigrant populations are also at risk of exposure through ceramic cooking pots with lead glaze, some imported candies, and certain stomach ailment home remedies. Public health agencies and practitioners acknowledge that Latino families should be educated about lead poisoning prevention but report barriers to conducting outreach and education in Latino communities. This study reports findings from focus groups and interviews with the local Latino immigrant community and professionals on (1) current knowledge and beliefs about lead poisoning and (2) recommendations of culturally appropriate educational strategies.

Engaging youth through photovoice.

The photovoice process aims to use photographic images taken by persons with little money, power, or status to enhance community needs assessments, empower participants, and induce change by informing policy makers of community assets and deficits. This article describes a youth photovoice project implemented in an after-school program that attempted to adapt the photovoice method to youth participants, test the effectiveness of the method with youth, and develop and refine a curriculum for replication. A process such as photovoice provides youth the opportunity to develop their personal and social identities and can be instrumental in building social competency.