142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

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309714
Evaluating Participatory Photo Mapping: A Promising Practice to Advance Strategies in Community Health

142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15 - November 19, 2014): http://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual
Monday, November 17, 2014 : 10:50 AM - 11:10 AM

Suzanne Gaulocher, PhD, MPH , Center for Teaching and Learning, Stanford University, Stanford, CA
  
Audio (mp3) recording Recorded Presentation (mp4)
Background: In recent years, researchers, professionals and community partners have engaged in many projects in various states using a novel method called Participatory Photo Mapping (PPM). This method combines photography, maps and narratives, and has been used as a tool to advance meaningful place-based community health strategies.

Objective: We aim to understand (1) whether and how PPM helped communities identify factors that impact their health, and (2) to what extent PPM contributed to the achievement of project goals and influenced future work.

Methods: We conducted a mail survey of 22 people who had completed PPM projects between 2003 and 2009. The survey included both closed- and open-ended questions.

Results: We found that PPM could assist in: (1) gaining and assessing information; (2) increasing awareness of the issues; (3) identifying and documenting these issues; and (4) enabling community change and empowerment. Respondents also reported that PPM helps facilitate collaboration between community members, professionals and researchers. Mapping was described as difficult in terms of resources, time and the need for technological skill.

Conclusion: PPM may be useful in advancing strategies in community health as a stand-alone method or as a complement to other methods. This method may contribute to place-based decision-making that could inform community interventions to improve health.

Learning Areas:

Diversity and culture
Ethics, professional and legal requirements
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Public health or related research
Social and behavioral sciences
Systems thinking models (conceptual and theoretical models), applications related to public health

Learning Objectives:
Define a tool that captures attitudes and perceptions of people as they navigate an environment Describe how Participatory Photo Mapping is used to communicate with policy and decision makers Demonstrate how PPM may be used to communicate findings to a broad audience Describe actionable processes in which community members take a part in mobilizing and engaging calls to action

Keyword(s): Community Health Assessment, Participatory Research

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have been a researcher and part of community/university teams for over a decade.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 3134.0: Community Based Participatory Research Applications