Narrative and prosodic skills in children and adolescents with Down syndrome and typically developing children

PURPOSE

Children with Down Syndrome (DS) show difficulties in language development, in both basic and complex abilities, as narratives. Less is known about the prosodic competence in DS, but the few available studies highlighted the presence of some deficits. Considering the importance of narratives and prosody in communication, the main aim of this study is to investigate these two competencies in participants with DS.

METHOD

13 children with DS participated (Mean age: 13;04, years; months). Their narrative and prosodic abilities, collected through a storytelling task, were compared with those of two control groups of typically developing (TD) children, one matched for nonverbal mental age (MA, Mean age: 5;03) and the other matched for the mean length of utterance (MLU, Mean age: 5;05). For the narrative competence, we considered both the macrostructural (i.e. quantity of information and story structure) and the microstructural level (i.e. verbal productivity, lexical diversity, syntactic complexity). For the prosodic competence, we took into account acoustic measures linked to intonation (i.e. mean fundamental frequency (f0), pitch range, final speech profile, and speed of speech).

RESULT

The results of the Mann-Whitney test showed that participants with DS produced stories comparable to those of TD children in nearly all the variables considered, except for the syntactic complexity when compared with children of the same MA. Differences between participants with DS and TD children were found in the f0 and the final pitch profile used.

CONCLUSION

Considering the small size of the samples, these preliminary results should be taken with caution. Nonetheless, this study confirms the presence of difficulties in the prosody of speech and in the syntactic competence of children with DS. These difficulties could have consequences on the possibility to communicate efficiently and should be taken into account in rehabilitation programmes.

Perspectives on Racism: Reflections on Our Collective Moral Responsibility When Leveraging Arts and Culture for Health Promotion

In this commentary essay, I examine the collective moral responsibility of leveraging arts and culture for health promotion, and the role ethical storytelling can play in reframing how health educators promote "good health" with specific regard to the next generation of the workforce. I reflect on the impact of racism, White supremacy, and anti-Blackness when merging the arts and culture sector with public health disciplines, and close with a call to action as our niche field expands. I argue that no matter our role as artists, cultural workers, heritage holders, and/or focus within public health education and health promotion, our work is both an art and a science. Just as the language we use forms a story, the collection of scholars we choose to cite exposes a narrative. I hope this commentary encourages readers to reflect on opportunities in their work to close the health equity gap with recognition of the knowledge, skills, abilities, and capital within and across Black culture while also lifting up the community cultural wealth that exists in Indigenous, Latinx, and Asian and Pacific Islander communities.

Recorded Mental Health Recovery Narratives as a Resource for People Affected by Mental Health Problems: Development of the Narrative Experiences Online (NEON) Intervention

BACKGROUND

The internet enables sharing of narratives about health concerns on a substantial scale, and some digital health narratives have been integrated into digital health interventions. Narratives describing recovery from health problems are a focus of research, including those presented in recorded (eg, invariant) form. No clinical trial has been conducted on a web-based intervention providing access to a collection of Recorded Recovery Narratives (RRNs).

OBJECTIVE

This study presents knowledge produced through the development of the Narrative Experiences Online (NEON) Intervention, a web-based intervention incorporating the algorithmic recommendation of RRNs.

METHODS

Knowledge was gathered through knowledge integration (KI) activities. KI1 synthesized previous studies to produce the NEON Impact Model describing how accessing RRNs produces health-related outcomes. KI2 developed curation principles for the NEON Collection of RRNs through consultation with the NEON Lived Experience Advisory Panel and the curation of a preliminary collection. KI3 identified harm minimization strategies for the NEON Intervention through consultation with the NEON International Advisory Board and Lived Experience Advisory Panel. The NEON Intervention was finalized through 2 research studies (RS). In RS1, mental health service users (N=40) rated the immediate impact of randomly presented narratives to validate narrative feedback questions used to inform the recommendation algorithm. In RS2, mental health service users (n=25) were interviewed about their immediate response to a prototype of the NEON Intervention and trial procedures and then were interviewed again after 1 month of use. The usability and acceptability of the prototype and trial procedures were evaluated and refinements were made.

RESULTS

KI1 produced the NEON Impact Model, which identifies moderators (recipient and context), mechanisms of connection (reflection, comparison, learning, and empathy), processes (identification of change from narrative structure or content and internalization of observed change), and outcomes (helpful and unhelpful). KI2 identified 22 curation principles, including a mission to build a large, heterogeneous collection to maximize opportunities for connection. KI3 identified seven harm minimization strategies, including content warnings, proactive and reactive blocking of narratives, and providing resources for the self-management of emotional distress. RS1 found variation in the impact of narratives on different participants, indicating that participant-level feedback on individual narratives is needed to inform a recommender system. The order of presentation did not predict narrative feedback. RS2 identified amendments to web-based trial procedures and the NEON Intervention. Participants accessed some narratives multiple times, use reduced over the 4-week period, and narrative feedback was provided for 31.8% (105/330) of narrative accesses.

CONCLUSIONS

RRNs can be integrated into web-based interventions. Evaluating the NEON Intervention in a clinical trial is feasible. The mixed methods design for developing the NEON Intervention can guide its extension to other clinical populations, the design of other web-based mental health interventions, and the development of narrative-based interventions in mental health.

Storytelling increases oxytocin and positive emotions and decreases cortisol and pain in hospitalized children

Storytelling is a unique human skill, yet we know little about its physiological and psychological impact. This study provides evidence of the biomarker changes and beneficial effects of storytelling in children admitted to an intensive care unit. We found that, compared with an active control condition, one storytelling session with hospitalized children leads to an increase in oxytocin, a reduction in cortisol and pain, and positive emotional shifts during a free-association task. These multimodal findings support evolutionary theories of storytelling and demonstrate its physiological and psychological effects under naturalistic stress conditions. These important clinical implications affirm storytelling as a low-cost and humanized intervention that can improve the well-being of hospitalized children.

Storytelling is a distinctive human characteristic that may have played a fundamental role in humans’ ability to bond and navigate challenging social settings throughout our evolution. However, the potential impact of storytelling on regulating physiological and psychological functions has received little attention. We investigated whether listening to narratives from a storyteller can provide beneficial effects for children admitted to intensive care units. Biomarkers (oxytocin and cortisol), pain scores, and psycholinguistic associations were collected immediately before and after storytelling and an active control intervention (solving riddles that also involved social interaction but lacked the immersive narrative aspect). Compared with the control group, children in the storytelling group showed a marked increase in oxytocin combined with a decrease in cortisol in saliva after the 30-min intervention. They also reported less pain and used more positive lexical markers when describing their time in hospital. Our findings provide a psychophysiological basis for the short-term benefits of storytelling and suggest that a simple and inexpensive intervention may help alleviate the physical and psychological pain of hospitalized children on the day of the intervention.

Creative Action at a Distance: A Conceptual Framework for Embodied Performance With Robotic Actors

Acting, stand-up and dancing are creative, embodied performances that nonetheless follow a script. Unless experimental or improvised, the performers draw their movements from much the same stock of embodied schemas. A slavish following of the script leaves no room for creativity, but active interpretation of the script does. It is the choices one makes, of words and actions, that make a performance creative. In this theory and hypothesis article, we present a framework for performance and interpretation within robotic storytelling. The performance framework is built upon movement theory, and defines a taxonomy of basic schematic movements and the most important gesture types. For the interpretation framework, we hypothesise that emotionally-grounded choices can inform acts of metaphor and blending, to elevate a scripted performance into a creative one. Theory and hypothesis are each grounded in empirical research, and aim to provide resources for other robotic studies of the creative use of movement and gestures.

Psychological Lockdown Experiences: Downtime or an Unexpected Time for Being?

The spread of COVID-19 in Italy resulted in the implementation of a lockdown that obligated the first time the general populace to remain at home for approximately two months. This lockdown interrupted citizens' professional and educational activities, in addition to closing shops, offices and educational institutions. The resulting changes in people's daily routines and activities induced unexpected changes in their thoughts, feelings and attitudes, in addition to altering their life perceptions. Consequently, the present study explores how young adults perceived their lives under lockdown during the final week of March 2020, when the reported number of daily coronavirus infections reached its peak in Italy. The research was carried out among 293 university students (234 women and 59 men) with an average age of 20.85 years old (SD = 3.23). The researchers asked participants to describe the emotions, thoughts and experiences that characterized their time under lockdown. The study analyzed specific narratives related to time and space using grounded theory methodology, which was applied using Atlas 8 software, leading to the creation of 68 codes. The study organized these codes into three specific categories: confined in the present, confined in the past, and striving toward one's goals. Finally, the researchers also created a core-category labeled "continuity of being." The results showed that the closure of open spaces caused a division in participants' perceptions of time continuity, with many viewing themselves as feeling fragmented and as living the present in a static and fixed way. Additionally, participants also saw the present as being discontinuous from the past, while, simultaneously, projecting toward the future and the changes it might bring. Finally, this study examined further implications surrounding individual projecting among young people in greater depth.

Perceived Effectiveness and Applicability of Think-Pair-Share Including Storytelling (TPS-S) to Enhance Clinical Learning

Problem: Think-pair-share (TPS) is a teaching strategy that promotes active and collaborative learning; however, the effectiveness and applicability of this strategy in its original or altered form remain to be established, especially in health professions education. As a first step in this direction, the objective of our study was to examine the perceived effectiveness and applicability of TPS including storytelling (TPS-S) in an oral pathology seminar from the perspectives of students, seminar instructors, and peer instructors (experienced instructors who observed the seminar). Intervention: Prompts for individual thinking (T), pair discussion (P), and class sharing (S) included clinical case-based questions related to diagnosis and management and wildcards with additional information about the cases. In addition to the traditional TPS phases, the experiences of the leading instructor in dealing with the cases discussed in the seminar were shared through storytelling to model good practices in clinical diagnosis and management. Context: Our study was conducted in the School of Dentistry at the University of Alberta. Participants in this mixed-method study included third (Y3) and fourth (Y4) year dental students (n = 55) in their clinical training, seminar instructors (n = 2), and peer instructors (n = 3). Data from students, seminar instructors, and peer instructors were obtained through the Student Evaluation of Educational Quality (SEEQ) questionnaire, journaling, and interview, respectively. Descriptive statistics were performed to analyze SEEQ dimensions and statements (factors). MANOVA was used to determine significant differences between Y3 and Y4 students for SEEQ dimensions and ANOVA to identify the factors that accounted for significant differences. Qualitative data were analyzed using inductive content analysis. Impact: Participants positively valued the TPS-S seminar. Students rated all SEEQ dimensions between good and very good and regarded the seminar as superior to traditional lectures. Perceived conditions that facilitated the implementation of TPS-S included the use of real-life clinical cases, instructor facilitation skills, and the scaffolded structure of the seminar. Perceived conditions that hindered the implementation of TPS-S included unequal participation of Y3 and Y4 students, time constraints, and issues related to student pairing. Lessons learned: TPS-S was perceived as effective to improve clinical learning and applicable to dental clinical education as long as its implementation matches the characteristics of the learning context. Further evidence is needed to empirically demonstrate the effectiveness and applicability of TPS-S.

Storytelling on Oral Grounds: Viewpoint Alignment and Perspective Taking in Narrative Discourse

In this paper, we seek to explain the power of perspective taking in narrative discourse by turning to research on the oral foundations of storytelling in human communication and language. We argue that narratives function through a central process of alignment between the viewpoints of narrator, hearer/reader, and character and develop an analytical framework that is capable of generating general claims about the processes and outcomes of narrative discourse while flexibly accounting for the great linguistic variability both across and within stories. The central propositions of this viewpoint alignment framework are that the distance between the viewpoints of participants in the narrative construal – narrator, character, reader – is dynamic and regulated by linguistic choices as well as contextual factors. Fundamentally, viewpoint alignment is grounded in oral narrative interaction and, from this conversation, transferred to the written narrative situation, varying between demonstration and invasion of the narrative subjects and guiding readers’ route of processing the narrative (experiential versus reflective). Our claim is that variations in viewpoint alignment are functional to the communicative context and intended outcomes of narratives. This is illustrated with the analysis of a corporate journalistic narrative that comprises both interactional and non-interactional aspects of storytelling. The concept of viewpoint alignment further explains the oral fundaments of narrative discourse in conversational storytelling and poses new questions on the relation between the dynamic processing of stories on the one hand and their static outcomes on the other.

Evaluating a digital life story app in a nursing home context - A qualitative study

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

To evaluate how digital life stories can be used to support person-centred care focusing on benefits and challenges experienced by the staff and the management team in a nursing home context.

BACKGROUND

Life story work can be used to support person-centred care and help people with dementia maintain their identity. The use of digital life stories provides opportunities to easily share the content between staff and relatives and combine different types of multimedia, for example pictures, videos, text and sound.

DESIGN

Six healthcare professionals and two members of the management team at a nursing home were recruited. Participant observations with informal interviews of the formal health career were conducted in two day shifts and two night shifts. Field notes were taken during the observations. Also, individual semi-structured interviews were held with four of the recruited participants. This article adheres to the Standards for Reporting Qualitative Research (SRQR).

RESULTS

Themes revealed were (1) person-centred care and life story work as interrelated approaches; (2) Pros and cons related to the My Life Story app; and how (3) Time and information and communication technology (ICT) can restrict life story work.

CONCLUSION

Digital life stories can be used to support a person-centred care approach. However, a number of challenges exist related to digital life story work. When using digital life stories, it is important to ensure the staff time and competences needed to work with, for example an app and that visible support and encouragement are provided by the management team.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE

Challenges are revealed when life story work is embedded in the culture and everyday work of a nursing home. It is of great importance to clinical practice to be aware of and address these challenges in order to succeed with digital life story work.

Creating a Theoretical Framework to Underpin Discourse Assessment and Intervention in Aphasia

Discourse (a unit of language longer than a single sentence) is fundamental to everyday communication. People with aphasia (a language impairment occurring most frequently after stroke, or other brain damage) have communication difficulties which lead to less complete, less coherent, and less complex discourse. Although there are multiple reviews of discourse assessment and an emerging evidence base for discourse intervention, there is no unified theoretical framework to underpin this research. Instead, disparate theories are recruited to explain different aspects of discourse impairment, or symptoms are reported without a hypothesis about the cause. What is needed is a theoretical framework that would clarify the specific linguistic skills that create completeness, coherence, and complexity (i.e., richness) in discourse, and illuminate both the processes involved in discourse production and the reasons for breakdown. This paper reports a review and synthesis of the theoretical literature relevant to spoken discourse in aphasia discourse, and we propose a novel theoretical framework which unites these disparate sources. This framework is currently being tested as the foundation for Linguistic Underpinnings of Narrative in Aphasia (LUNA) treatment research. In this paper, we outline the novel framework and exemplify how it might be used to guide clinical practice and research. Future collaborative research is needed to develop this framework into a processing model for spoken discourse.

Sharing Our Stories and Holding Our Past to Task

The structures that maintain systemic racism frequently keep us from seeing and valuing the full humanity of all those around us, especially when they are of a different race. This article describes a process to create safe dialogues between people of different races to inform our understanding of systemic racism so that we can work together to end its reign.

Participant Engagement in a Transmedia Storytelling Web-Based App Intervention for Mental Health of Latina Women: Qualitative Analysis

BACKGROUND

Stigma, fear, and lack of knowledge regarding treatment options or where to get help create delays for Latina women in accessing needed mental health help. Story-based media interventions hold appeal for Latina women. Thus, we drew upon the Social Cognitive Theory by Bandura to create an evidence-based, transmedia storytelling web-based app for mental health called Catalina: Confronting My Emotions to connect Latina women to a curated set of mental health resources. Understanding how Latina women perceive various aspects of the web-based app will help design future expansions.

OBJECTIVE

A previously published analysis led to the development of a category on how participants related to the lead character (Catalina) in the story line of the web-based app as a real person. However, the purpose of this analysis was to gain an understanding of participants' experiences with the extension of the dramatic story line of the web-based app beyond Catalina to a Latina nurse-therapist character named Veronica, who was featured prominently in the app's interactive content and bonus videos.

METHODS

Qualitative analyses were conducted with interview data from a community-based sample of 28 English-speaking Latina women aged between 21 and 50 years who scored above the threshold for anxiety (Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7) and/or depression (Patient Health Questionnaire-9) but were not suicidal at screening. Data were collected 72 hours after participants engaged with our transmedia storytelling web-based app for mental health. Grounded theory methodology guided the analysis and interpretation of data that had been collected telephonically, recorded, and transcribed with identifiers removed. Analyses included initial and focused coding using process codes (gerund form of verbs in codes focused on action), informed by symbolic interactionism, and the development of categories with properties through constant comparison, memo writing, and the use of charts and diagrams.

RESULTS

Our participants experienced a multiphase process that was most heavily related to Veronica, the Latina nurse-therapist character in our web-based app, who led them through a process to a place of action. We conceptualized this process as moving from passive viewer to active participant of a transmedia storytelling web-based app intervention. Overall, 3 new conceptual categories provided insight into women's experiences, including encountering a trustworthy nurse-therapist character, taking in messages that dispel old beliefs, and preparing when and how to take action. Each category has nuanced properties that reflect participants' experiences.

CONCLUSIONS

Active engagement with our web-based app led our sample to successfully transition from the viewpoint of the observer to the viewpoint of the experiencer, moving from a passive position of watching to active engagement that involved imagining, thinking, reflecting, and acting. Careful development of dramatic material for health-related web-based apps using transmedia story extension and bonus videos needs to be based on input from the target group from the start of development through evaluation and testing.

The potential of transformative video design for improving caregiver's wellbeing

The existing interventions for informal caregivers assist with managing health outcomes of the role burden. However, the deeper meaning-making needs of informal caregivers have been generally neglected. This paper reflects on the meaning-making needs of informal caregivers, through the theory of narrative identity, and proposes a new approach - the Transformative Video Design technique delivered via video storytelling. Transformative Video Design assists informal caregivers to re-create a cohesive caregiving story and incorporate it into the narrative identity. The technique is used as a stimulus for triggering the self-re-structure within the narrative identity and facilitating role transformation.

Storytelling as a Teaching Approach for Breastfeeding Education

Providing education on breastfeeding to women and their families can be nuanced as a nurse navigates through identifying their questions, ideas, and knowledge gaps. Storytelling as a teaching method may offer a valuable means of communication between a nurse and the person for whom she is providing care. In this article, we reflect on the concept of storytelling for breastfeeding education via an author-generated approach. Three components are identified for the practice of teaching by storytelling: (a) asking for the person's story, (b) genuinely listening to the story, and (c) responding by storytelling. These three components can be operationalized through a seven-step process that includes welcoming, creating the opening, listening, considering, developing the story, telling the story, and being brave. Storytelling as a teaching modality may facilitate a learner's absorption of information.

Patient Stories Can Make a Difference in Patient-Centered Research Design

Amid increasing interest in improving the patient-centeredness of research, new forms of engagement are emerging that enable researchers to get input from community members on research goals, methods, and implementation. This input often includes stories, which are useful for understanding lived experiences of illness and encounters with health care organizations, and for locating these experiences within larger meta-narratives of specific communities. We analyzed the stories in transcripts of 13 Community Engagement Studios and identified 4 major functions that the stories served in the sessions. Major functions included: (1) establishing mutual understanding, (2) adding expansion and depth, (3) characterizing abstract concepts, and (4) providing context for experience, with the latter being the most frequent. We assert that stories can serve to better communicate the complex contexts of patient experiences, helping to align research priorities and research design with community interests, leading to more patient-centered innovations in clinical practice.

Storytelling als innovative Methode zur videobasierten Edukation für Eltern von Kindern mit atopischer Dermatitis

Storytelling as an innovative method of video-based education for parents of children with atopic dermatitis Abstract. Background: Atopic Dermatitis (AD) is the most chronic skin disease in children and affects up to 20 % of children in developed countries. Chronic inflammation of the skin, itching, redness, and non-dermatologic symptoms like sleep disturbance are frequent and have a negative impact on the child's quality of life and their family. Education is one of the most important aspects of managing AD. Aim: Production and evaluation of educational videos with the method storytelling for parents of children aged 0 to 5 years with atopic dermatitis. Methods: We produced the videos with the method of storytelling. The aim of storytelling is to help to recall important information more easily. A multi-professional team and parents of affected children tested the videos to ensure the understandability, the helpfulness and importance of the educational videos. Results: We created six different videos in all. The content of the educational videos includes information on the causes of AD, symptoms, skin care, treatment instruction and living with AD. We implemented the method of storytelling by two families with affected children who reported about their experience with the disease and the treatment. Three different specialists gave expert information. The evaluation showed that the information in the videos is simple, understandable and relevant. Conclusions: Evidence-based videos are an innovative, creative and modern method to support education. Storytelling is a user-friendly method to give simple and understandable information.

Molecular Memories of a Cambrian Fossil

Evolutionary evidence is important scientific background for appreciating the theory of evolution. We describe a STEAM-based lesson plan that uses paleontological drawings and a modern evolutionary database to explore and understand fossil, morphological, and molecular evidence. Together, with a focus on arthropods and the Cambrian explosion, students experience a heuristic process common in scientific reasoning, guiding them toward practices that synthesize knowledge and invite questioning in the life sciences.

Gestures in Storytelling by Preschool Chinese-Speaking Children With and Without Autism

Previous findings on gestural impairment in autism are inconsistent, while scant evidence came from Chinese-speaking individuals. In the present study, preschool Chinese-speaking children with typical development and with autism were asked to generate stories from a set of wordless Cartoon pictures. Two groups were matched in chronological age and language developmental age. Their speech and gestures were coded. Compared to children with typical development, children with autism produced fewer gestures and showed lower gesture rate. Besides, children with autism produced fewer emblems and fewer supplementary gestures compared to their TD peers. Unlike children with typical development, children with autism tend to produce emblems for reinforcing, rather than supplementing information not conveyed in speech. Results showed the impairments in integrating the cross-modal semantic information in children with autism.

Health Professionals as Mothers of Adult Children With Schizophrenia

In this qualitative narrative study, we critically reflected upon mothering experiences of health professionals with adult children with schizophrenia. Thirteen participants from Australia, Canada, Scotland, and the United States were interviewed. The thematic analysis of the interviews resulted in one overarching theme-mothering in the context of uncertainty: unbalancing and rebalancing as mothers, and three major themes: disrupted mothering, reconfigured mothering, and resolute mothering. The findings suggested participants experienced difficulties in separating their professional role from their maternal responsibilities. The mothers gained expertise by using their dual knowledge to advocate for and support their children's mental health. The mothers' dual roles had a positive impact on their relatedness to others within their professional practice. Health care organizations might benefit from the expertise of health professionals with dual roles in the development of support, care, treatment, and delivery of services for people and their family members who live with schizophrenia.

Framework for creating storytelling materials to promote African American/Black adult enrollment in research on Alzheimer's disease and related disorders

INTRODUCTION

African American/Black adults are severely underrepresented in basic, clinical, and behavioral research studies in Alzheimer's disease and related disorders (ADRD). Innovative, evidence-based, and culturally salient strategies can maximize the recruitment of African American/Black adults into ADRD research.

METHODS

We conducted and analyzed semi-structured interviews to capture the research participation stories of African American/Black participants and study partners from the University of Pittsburgh's Alzheimer's Disease Research Center. The themes and messaging principles generated through this process informed the development of video- and text-based materials that were evaluated for community member acceptance using focus groups.

RESULTS

Focus group individuals (N = 36) generally favorably rated the video and text materials, characterizing them as "interesting," "realistic," and "convincing."

DISCUSSION

Capturing the narratives of African American/Black research participants is a critical component to developing culturally relevant materials for broader dissemination and is essential to advancing beyond information-only recruitment approaches, which tend to rely disproportionately on negative messages.

Mapping the Drugged Body: Telling Different Kinds of Drug-using Stories

Drugged bodies are commonly depicted as passive, suffering and abject, which makes it hard for them to be known in other ways. Wanting to get closer to these alternative bodies and their resourcefulness for living, I turned to body-mapping as an inventive method for telling different kinds of drug-using stories. Drawing on a research project with people who inject heroin and crack cocaine in London, UK, I employed body-mapping as a way of studying drugged bodies in their relation to others, human and non-human, in the injecting event. I invited participants to draw their bodies in describing these otherwise hard-to-articulate experiences. Following Donna Haraway, I conceptualise body-mapping as a more-than-human mode of storytelling where different kinds of bodies can be known. Here, I look at three such bodies - sensing-bodies, temporal-bodies and environment-bodies - and argue that it is through being able to respond to such bodies that more hospitable ways of living with drugs can become possible.

Exploring the Impact of Storytelling on Storytellers in a Hepatitis B Health Communication Context

OBJECTIVE

In order to address the stigma associated with hepatitis B, increase awareness, encourage testing, and promote prevention through vaccination, a storytelling campaign featuring people living with hepatitis B and their family members was developed. Storytelling campaigns have been evaluated for their impact on the viewing audience; however, few studies have examined the impact of storytelling on storytellers themselves. This study seeks to examine the experiences of the individuals telling their stories.

METHODS

Trained researchers conducted semi-structured interviews (n = 23) with individuals who had participated in a hepatitis B storytelling campaign.

RESULTS

A thematic analysis of the interviews produced four overarching themes: 1) Outreach; 2) Emotion; 3) Education; and 4) Stigma. The interviews demonstrate that participants found storytelling to be a positive, comfortable, and emotional experience, and that it motivated them to educate others and increase awareness. Additionally, participants identified the need to increase outreach and address stigma related to hepatitis B.

CONCLUSION

While more research is needed, these study results can be used to enhance future engagement, training, and experiences of hepatitis B storytellers.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

Findings provide insight into how storytelling can impact the sharing their story and provide important implications for future storytelling campaigns.

Cancer survivorship reimagined: A qualitative study on evolving interpretative repertoires of cancer and survivorship using participant-produced photography

OBJECTIVE

As more people live with cancer and for longer time periods, it is important to understand the growing diversity in lived experiences of survivorship. This study explored interpretative repertoires around cancer and their implications for survivorship from the perspectives of people with cancer to inform communication in cancer care.

METHODS

The sample included 11 participants (7 male, 4 female) with diverse cancer diagnoses and prognoses recruited through two public cancer care centres in Queensland, Australia. A narrative analysis of sequential interviews (n = 20) and photographs produced by the participants (n = 455) was conducted.

RESULTS

Four interrelated metaphors and narratives emerged in the interpretative repertoires of participants: cancer as a presence, survivorship as a struggle for meaning, survivorship as movement and survivorship as confluence. Continuities with "battle" and "journey" terminology were evident. However, these were subtly adapted and reimagined within participants' own lived experience. This was particularly pronounced among participants with incurable cancers, as they strived to make sense of contradictions within cancer survivorship.

CONCLUSION

The findings offer in-depth insights into the complexity and nuances of cancer survivorship. Such insights can contribute to facilitating successful and open-ended communication between cancer care providers, people with cancer and their families.

Collaborative Experience Success Stories in Integrated Care of Older People: A Narrative Analysis

Introduction:

Inter-organisational collaboration is crucial in the care of older people, as is the development of integrated care. Storytelling in organisations is one way of understanding how to achieve successful collaboration. This article provides insights into the ways in which storytelling in collaborative experiences contributes to a collective identity instrumental in the successful collaborations involved in integrated care for older people.

Theory:

Managing cultural diversity is one specific theme in the theory of collaborative advantage; this is used in combination with theories of storytelling in organisations.

Method:

Interviews with staff from three different municipalities applying three various strategies for integrated care were carried out. Stories of the collaborative experiences were analysed using a narrative approach.

Results:

The most significant finding was that a similar type of success story was evident across all three municipalities. The story was identified as an epic-comedy story where success was accomplished through the heroic characterisations of the managers, in addition to their improvisation abilities and discretionary work towards common goals.

Conclusion:

It is suggested that storytelling in collaborative experiences is one way of overcoming cultural frictions between different collaborating actors and may contribute to a coherent sense of a collective identity, thus facilitating further collaboration.

The Aftermath and the Aftermyth: Learning From Memoirists Who Experienced Sexual Assault While at University

There is an abundance of research on the health consequences of sexual assault during university, but less attention has been paid to how sexual assault also shapes women's everyday lives. To develop an understanding of the everyday aftermath of sexual assault, we used narrative inquiry to analyze how women textually represent everyday living after sexual assault during university within four memoirs. Memoirists discussed their lives as significantly changed and worked to repair their lives after sexual assault by engaging in a range of everyday activities. Although no single behavioral response was described, some memoirists were perceived as deviant if they engaged in behaviors that contradicted prevailing cultural myths and expectations about how one should behave after sexual assault. We need to create room for women to engage in personal, idiosyncratic responses if we are to challenge restrictive standards for doing in the aftermath of sexual assault during university.