This Master of Occupational Therapy capstone project aims to use meaningful community engagement to co-develop and pilot a Photovoice protocol for adults with SMI to understand their sense of community and belonging and explore how community is built in long term residential settings. Four OT graduate students in the UW Department of Rehabilitation Medicine will lead the program with mentoring from Garvey Institute faculty and staff.
Photovoice, a participatory qualitative research method that combines photography and narrative storytelling to document daily life, enables people to visually document their environment, concerns, and assets and sparks discussion about the root causes of community strengths and issues. The team is currently identifying long-term housing partners to participate in the project.
Piloting of the Photovoice protocol will culminate with a public photo exhibition to share the stories of participants and advocate for intentionally created therapeutic communities to support recovery. The co-developed protocol will include a SMI specific accommodation and inclusion guide to support dissemination and implementation across illness severity.