Facilitator letter for Parkinson's Disease Project with Support Groups

1. To the Facilitators of Parkinson’s Support Groups;
I am writing to request your participation in a Photovoice project. The purpose of this project is
to see if Photovoice (taking pictures, sharing the pictures and talking about them) will be helpful
within your support group to enhance discussions and to assist in identifying coping strategies
for all who are living with Parkinson’s disease or living with a family member who has
Parkinson’s disease. Photovoice has been found to be an effective therapeutic intervention in
other settings as it leads to visual evidence (the picture) and triggers thoughts and discussion.
I have had the opportunity to work with Photovoice with care partners of those who have been
diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. It was a powerful tool for those family members for self­
reflection as well as visually having evidence of their journey with Parkinson’s disease.
If you are willing to participate in this project I will call you and set up a time to meet with you
to talk about the project. I will give you all the information you will need to work with
Photovoice within your support groups as well as come to the first support group meeting to
discuss the project. The timeline for this project would be about 4 months in length. After
meeting with you, I will then plan on coming to one of your support group meetings to give an
overview of the project and directions. For three months the group will be instructed to take
pictures of various things. For instance, at the first meeting I will go over Photovoice and ask
them to go out and take pictures of things that they do to help cope with Parkinson’s disease, or
take pictures of things that are helpful for their ‘self­care’. At the next meeting they will be
requested to bring back 3­5 pictures that they have taken and they will share with the group why
they took those pictures and what they mean to them. I believe this will lead to some good
discussion that will be beneficial to the group as a whole.
For the next 3 meetings you, as the facilitator, will lead the discussion around whatever direction
the pictures were taken. At the 4th
meeting, I will return and talk about the process and if the
group found Photovoice to be helpful in sharing through the pictures and stories.
I look forward to working with you on this project. I will be available at all times to answer
questions (via phone). For those who do not have a phone (with camera), ipad, or digital camera,
they will be given a digital camera to use during the project.
Again, this project is meant to be a tool that can be used as a therapeutic intervention as they
journey through living with Parkinson’s disease. Thank you for considering being a participant
in this project. I look forward to working with you and your group. Please feel free to call me or
email me if you have any questions.
Take care,
Joyce Bredesen, DNP, RN
joycebredesen@gmail.com
763­360­5947