ARTS-BASED RESEARCH & STORIES IN CARE: Amplifying Voices from the Royal Commission into Aged Care. Presentation on value of Storytelling in health research - July 2022 to QLD Healthcare Improvement Community of Practice

1. ARTS-BASED RESEARCH & STORIES IN CARE
Amplifying Voices from the Royal
Commission into Aged Care
Professor Evonne Miller - Director QUT Design Lab
@evonnephd

2. THE POWER OF STORY – WHY ARTS-BASED STORTELLING?

3. arts-based storytelling
has a unique capacity to
“educate, inspire, illuminate,
resist, heal and persuade…
[connecting] us with these who are
similar and dissimilar, open up new
ways of seeing and experiencing,
and illuminate that which often
remains in darkness”
p. ix, Patricia Leavy (2020).
When Method meets art:
Arts-based research practice. Guilford.
Today – Arts-Based Methods
& Royal Commission Project

4. 1. DRAWING
playful nature / not dependent on linguistic proficiency /
visual versus textual ways of knowing / impactful
Literat, I. (2013). “A pencil for your thoughts”: Participatory drawing as a visual research method with children and youth. International Journal of Qualitative Methods.

5. HEALTHCARE
INSPIRATIONAL
MOMENTS FROM
WM “REHAB” DT
WORKSHOP

6. VISUAL STORYTELLING
Artist: Stephanie Bonson & Simon Kneeborne / Project: Our Care Journal Info: Evonne Miller - https://ourcarejourney.wordpress.com/
DRAWING / SKETCHES
CAPTURING THE LIVED
EXPERIENCE OF
INFORMAL CAREGIVING

7. Your sister is the primary informal caregiver for your 61 year old mother,
who has end stage cancer. She rings, in a panic. She is exhausted and
angry. She tells you to ‘step up and do more to help’. WHAT HAPPENS
NEXT? WRITE / TWEET 3-4 SENTENCES TO @evonnephd
Finish this story. What happens next?
STORY COMPLETION
Your fiercely independent 87 year old father has had a fall, and broken his
hip. The hospital has said he cannot live alone in his large two-storey home
any more. They recommend two choices – either your father moves in with
you (and you become his informal caregiver), or into one small room in the
local nursing home. WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
WRITE / TWEET 3-4 SENTENCES TO @evonnephd

8. 2. DIGITAL STORYTELLING & PLAYS
Digital Storytelling uses multimedia tools to bring narratives to life –
we documented the experience of VR in aged care, developing a toolkit for
staff, residents and families, and 3 monologue plays (inspired by Alan
Hopgood’s HealthPlays, Australian Institute of Patient & Family Centred Care)
VR into Aged Care Team: Evonne Miller, Glenda Caldwell, Jenny Waycott, Raelene Wilding, Steven Baker,
Barbara Neves, Leonie Sanderson, Caleb Lewis & Shane Pike

9. 3. PARTICIPATORY PHOTOGRAPHY
& PHOTOVOICE
Wang C, Burris MA. (1997). Photovoice: Concept, Methodology, and Use for Participatory Needs Assessment. Health Education & Behavior,24(3):369-387.
1. Enable community reflection on strengths or concerns;
2. Promote knowledge & critical dialogue via discussion of photographs;
3. Reach decision makers and advocate for change
Amanda Latz’s Eight Steps
Step 1 Identification Of issue/ problem, form an advisory committee, with policy-makers
Step 2 Invitation Invite prospective participant; think about recruitment
Step 3 Education Explain ethics & intricacies of photovoice process
Step 4 Documentation Photographic task & prompts – day in life, highlights etc
Step 5 Narration Photographic narrative; groups/individual; questions eg SHOWED
Step 6 Ideation Participatory data/ thematic coding
Step 7 Presentation Sharing images in public-facing way
Step 8 Confirmation/ Evaluation Feedback/Lessons Learnt
Latz, A. O. (2017). Photovoice research in education and beyond: A practical guide from theory to exhibition. Routledge.

10. PHOTOVOICE - VISUAL
STORYTELLING
IN HOSPITALS TO
FOSTER CONNECTIONS
HEAL PROJECT – REHAB AT WEST MORETON, IPSWICH - BOONAH

11. VISUAL STORYTELLING IN AGED CARE – PHOTOVOICE (Wang & Burris, 1997)
“Balloons for Carol” & “Staff Vintage Car Show"
Miller, E. et al, (2020). The happiness initiative: Changing organizational culture to make ‘brilliance’ mainstream in aged care.
Journal of Management & Organization (2020), 26, 296–308. IMAGES: TRICIA KING & STAFF. ARC PROJECT: INSIDE AGED CARE

12. HIV stigma may be both
cathartic and triggering for
participants
• Examples of health care
staff discriminated and
disrespected Black PLWH
and Black trans women
• Revisited childhood homes
where abuse occurred or
places in the community
where they sought shelter
during periods of
homelessness
Pichon et al. (2022). Triggers or Prompts? When Methods Resurface Unsafe Memories and the Value of Trauma-Informed Photovoice
Research Practices. International Journal of Qualitative Methods,
Trauma-Informed Photovoice Research Practices – 2019 Snap Out Stigma (SOS)
Project with 35 people living with HIV (PLWH): take 5–10 pictures depicting internalizations of stigma

13. 4. RESEARCH
POETRY

14. powerful combination of photovoice & research poetry
RESEARCH POETRY: THE POWER OF PARTICIPATORY CREATIVE ARTS-BASED METHODS
insideagedcareproject.wordpress.com

15. “We encounter the arts through
our full presence” (p.472,
Lawrence, 2012), with this
“emphatic experience” (Eisner,
2008, p.7) having the potential to
transform individual worldviews
and communities, challenging
taken for granted assumptions by
allowing us to envision different
experiences and alternative
realities and memorably revealing
truth through art and beauty,
enabling us to “access elusive
aspects of knowledge that might
otherwise remain hidden or
ignored” (p. 313, Holm et al., 2018).
Holm, G., Sahlström, F., & Zilliacus, H. (2018). Arts-based visual research. In P.
Leavy (Ed.), Handbook of arts-based research (pp. 311–335). Guilford Press
STORIES SHAPE,
REFLECT & CHANGE
WORKPLACE CULTURE

16. ARTS-BASED RESEARCH IN CARE
Amplifying Voices from the
Royal Commission into Aged Care

17. ARTS-BASED RESEARCH IN CARE
Amplifying Voices from the
Royal Commission into Aged Care
TEAM: Evonne Miller, Sarah Holland-Batt, TJ Thomson, Jen Seevinck, Merryn Gott, Sarah Johnstone, Sam Regi

18. MEDIA ANALYSIS
Over 28 months, between 8 October
2018 to 1 March 2021, the RC held 23
public hearings involving 641 witnesses,
and received 10,574 public submissions.

20. Turning Policy into Art /
Stories - Poetic Inquiry
& the 10,574 RC
Submissions
Over 28 months, between 8
October 2018 to 1 March
2021, the RC held 23 public
hearings involving 641
witnesses, and received 10,574
public submissions. Here we
include a selection of poems
which represent different
perspectives including: aged
care residents, their families,
and the workforce.

36. As Patricia Leavy (2020) argues, arts-based storytelling has a unique capacity to
“educate, inspire, illuminate, resist, heal and persuade… [connecting] us with
these who are similar and dissimilar, open up new ways of seeing and
experiencing, and illuminate that which often remains in darkness”
p. ix, Leavy. When Method meets art: Arts-based research practice. Guilford.
EVENT: Caring for the Care Workforce
Australian Association of Gerontology
TUESDAY 2 August, 2-6pm.
Digital Exhibition 5pm - QUT, KG

37. How do we reimagine care?
Arts-based storytelling –
for experiential learning, culture change and true transformation

38. ARTS-BASED RESEARCH & STORIES IN CARE
Amplifying Voices from the Royal
Commission into Aged Care
Professor Evonne Miller - Director QUT Design Lab
@evonnephd