Intersection of diabetes, culture, migration, social class, representation and meaning: A photovoice project

There is a body of qualitative research that has explored the needs and health beliefs of specific populations utilizing engaging and participatory methodologies. This study utilized the Photovoice methodology which is based on a conceptual framework that incorporates: Paulo Freire's education for critical consciousness, feminist theory and documentary photography. Photovoice, described as a process by its creators (Wang & Burris, 1997) has its own set of goals. The first one is to allow people to document and reflect their community concerns and strengths; the second one is to promote critical dialog about community issues and the third is to reach policy makers. This presentation will consist of the results of a Photovoice project conducted in San Jose, CA that provided members of the community of uninsured Latinos/as immigrants living with diabetes with the opportunity to express via photographic images, narratives about those images and dialogues about those images, what it is really like to live with diabetes and self manage it. By learning about their reality, the study: 1) identified relevant themes related to diabetes self management, 2) informed the public and diabetes stakeholders of those themes, 3) created community awareness about the problem of diabetes for the uninsured diabetes patients of Latino descent, 4) empowered the group of participants as individuals by giving them control over an issue about which they are seldom consulted and 5) suggested interventions to improve the systems of care for the population the study participants represent with the ultimate goal of reducing diabetes complications.