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First-person representations of illness have been studied as key to the cultural fabric disrupting dominant practices of ill health or disease regimes. However, the role that digital platforms play in shaping this fabric in contemporary societies has been mostly overlooked. We address this gap by investigating how mainstream social media, as mundane spaces modelled by corporate-driven techno-commercial structures, frame specific forms of visuality or ways to see ill health. We reflect on how these forms of visuality relate to existing disease regimes. The article presents an investigation of popular images of BReast CAncer (BRCA) hereditary cancer syndromes posted on Instagram, Twitter (now X) or Facebook over the course of 12 months. By combining cultural analytics, visual network analysis and interpretive techniques, we explore the emergence of platform-specific visual vernaculars and the visual genres of ill health emerging from these vernaculars. Our analysis suggests that, in the context of BRCA hereditary cancer syndromes, popular social media images primarily exacerbate existing racialised and gendered practices. Where alternative views emerge, in their being shaped by platforms' attention economies, they often operate in what we define as a 'liminal space' of imagination - one that hints at renewed, but not necessarily disruptive and certainly not radical ways to imagine ill health.

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A focus on the materiality within ageing studies brings into focus the material dimensions of space, rhythms and material objects in everyday life. The aim of this paper is to explore meanings around space in the context of the daily lives of people growing older and how materiality is embodied, embedded and performed in the material and social context of our everyday lives. The paper draws on data from the empirical research study Photographing Everyday Life: Ageing, Lived Experiences, Time and Space funded by the ESRC, UK. The focus of the project was to explore the significance of the ordinary and day-to-day and focus on the everyday meanings, lived experiences, practical activities, and social contexts in which people in mid-to-later life live their daily lives. The research involved a diverse sample of 62 women and men aged 50 years and over who took photographs of their different daily routines to create a weekly visual diary. The data reveals three interconnecting whilst analytically distinct themes within the materiality of ageing and the spaces around everyday life: (1) Space, materiality and everyday life; (2) Rhythms, routines and materiality; and (3) Social and material connectivity. The paper concludes by highlighting a complex engagement with space, in which participants drew and re-drew boundaries surrounding meanings of space, sometimes within the same interview or even within a discussion of the same photograph. Moreover, a focus on materiality has elicited rich and illuminating accounts of how people in mid-to-later life experience the intersections between ageing, bodies, time and space in their everyday lives.

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Musical improvisation is a generative process of spontaneously creating music 'in the moment'. For people with young onset dementia, musical improvisation provides an extended opportunity for creative self-expression and connection to one's own body and life story. Using visual research methods, including video elicitation interviews, this paper explores the 'in the moment' musical experiences of five people living with young onset dementia who took part in a 15-week improvised music-making programme (Music in Mind). We frame the exploration of the group's musical experiences through the emerging lens of 'care aesthetics'-a concept that identifies the sensory relations and embodied practices between two (or more) people in a caring relationship. In the context of this analysis, we look to the caring practices by, with, and between people living with dementia, their family members, and the musicians who lead the programme and the relationship of these practices to feelings of self-expression and meaningful connection. Musical improvisation has the potential to support the psychological, social, and spiritual wellbeing of people living with young onset dementia. In applying a lens of care aesthetics, it is possible to observe the micro-level experiences of people living with dementia and their family carers.

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Social media has profoundly changed our modes of self-expression, communication, and participation in public discourse, generating volumes of conversations and content that cover every aspect of our social lives. Social media platforms have thus become increasingly important as data sources to identify social trends and phenomena. In recent years, academics have steadily lost ground on access to social media data as technology companies have set more restrictions on Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) or entirely closed public APIs. This circumstance halts the work of many social scientists who have used such data to study issues of public good. We considered the viability of eight approaches for image-based social media data collection: data philanthropy organizations, data repositories, data donation, third-party data companies, homegrown tools, and various web scraping tools and scripts. This paper discusses the advantages and challenges of these approaches from literature and from the authors' experience. We conclude the paper by discussing mechanisms for improving social media data collection that will enable this future frontier of social science research.

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Adolescents' supportive relationships with nonparental adults are beneficial when they are close and have trust, but few studies explore how adolescents believe closeness and trust unfold over time. I propose a method for prompting adolescents to retrospectively describe the development of abstract components of such relationships by sharing a study that used interviewee-created graphing to prompt adolescents to move from concrete parts of the relationship to abstract concepts using a tool adolescents would be familiar with from math classes. Analyses using Venn diagrams and matrices suggested adolescents conceptualized closeness and trust differently, however, this was shaped by whether the adult was a part of their family. Reflections on how the proposed graphing method can effectively be used will be discussed.

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This systematic review investigates how participatory visual methods (PVMs) (1) are applied in community health interventions (CHIs) with adult migrant populations and (2) identify potentials for participation. The search was performed in PubMed in 2021 and 2023. Eighteen articles fulfilled inclusion criteria as they investigated a CHI targeting migrants and used a visual method. We excluded articles that used quantitative methods, articles written in languages other than English, Danish, Swedish, or Norwegian, and the formats reviews, protocols, and theoretical articles. As a framework to graduate the degree of participation, we applied Arnstein's 'A Ladder of Citizen Participation'. Most of the studies took place in the United States, and the most frequent method used was photovoice. We categorize an equal number of articles as 'degrees of citizen power' or 'degrees of tokenism'. We identify the capacity to accommodate the needs of specific target groups to be a strength in PVMs, which has potential to engage migrants in several parts of the research process. Additionally, PVMs can be used to support a change in the participants' lives by facilitating a reflexive process concerning their life situation. However, utilization of PVMs also include a risk of tensions, they can be resource-demanding and potentially exclude certain groups.

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In this article, I present how drawing offers valuable ethnographic possibilities in care settings where verbal communication is challenging. The empirical examples derive from a study where I drew in situ in dementia care units to explore what residents and staff members found important in their everyday practices. I demonstrate how experimenting with the drawing process as well as the resulting drawings enabled diverse forms of participation to see and unsee matters together with residents and staff members. Treating drawings as steppingstones, meant that inquiries could be shaped together with interlocutors and that questions could be kept open and relevant.

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Visual methods are becoming more evident in health research. Timeline drawings have been used as a participatory tool alongside interviews in life course research. In this article, we describe how a method involving timeline generation can explore patient experiences along a treatment continuum. Grounded in previously published evidence and using specific examples from two studies exploring the experiences of young people treated for chronic pain, we outline the key components of this method. Moreover, we highlight the flexibility of its application and the importance of using a person-centered approach in tailoring the application pragmatically to study population-specific needs and characteristics, while answering the research question. We also reflect on how the dynamic visual display of the timeline and participants' explanations add perspective and understanding to complex and multidimensional human experiences associated with healthcare treatment. Furthermore, we outline how this method can help capture changes in the meaning and sense-making of these experiences over time, all the while fostering empowerment in study participants. Finally, the key considerations of using the method are outlined. It is our aim that this article provides the details required to inspire others to consider this novel method as a means of capturing the healthcare experiences of young people with other chronic conditions, an important first step in fostering the changes required to improve the quality of healthcare services and research.

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Monitoring the conservation status of endangered freshwater fish using less invasive methods poses challenges for ecologists and conservationists. Visual surveys have been proposed as an alternative to electrofishing, which is a standard methodology that can cause injuries, physiological stress and post-release mortality in organisms. To test the efficacy of visual methods, a study was conducted in an intermittent stream of Sardinia (Italy). Two visual methods were employed: a visual survey from streambanks (VSS) and an underwater visual survey (UVS) using cameras. The aims of this study were (1) to compare the effectiveness of these methods in detecting patch occupancy patterns and (2) to investigate the effect of environmental variables on the detection probability of Mediterranean native trout. Environmental variables characterizing pool habitats were recorded, and generalized linear models (GLMs) were employed to assess the correlation between these variables and trout presence/absence. GLM analysis revealed that UVS had higher detection probability with larger pool volume, whereas submerged macrophytes negatively affected detection probability. Detection from streambanks (VVS) was negatively affected by a high turbulence rate. In conclusion, our study suggests the utility of visual methods to describe patterns of patch occupancy of Mediterranean trout. However, methods can be differently affected by environmental variables. Therefore, monitoring programs using these methods should consider these factors to ensure a reliable description of within-stream trout distribution in intermittent streams.

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Rates of suicide and violence are higher amongst male prisoners than the general population. This study aimed to explore the emotional experiences of male prisoners in the distal and immediate lead-up to acts of suicide and violence. Nine male prisoners created drawings of their emotions in the lead-up to an act of suicide and/or violence. Accompanying verbal interview data was collected to explore the narrative of these drawings. Polytextual thematic analysis was conducted on both the visual and audio data. Three themes were found. 'The outside picture' depicted the emotions that male prisoners exhibited externally. 'The inside picture' illustrated the internal emotions felt by male prisoners which were often complex and abstract. 'The complexity of the picture' denotes the complicated relationship between emotions and suicide/violence. Male prisoners experience a range of emotions in the lead up to acts of suicide and violence, with a similar set of emotions being experienced immediately prior to both suicide and violence. This study has illustrated the benefits of using a novel and creative methodology, and has demonstrated that future research with male prisoners could benefit from adopting a participatory visual methodology.

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Livestock value chains constitute a source of livelihood for meat and milk value chain actors in Ethiopia, from dairy farmers to other associated value chain actors such as milk traders, abattoir workers, public health officials, veterinarians, butcheries selling meats, milk cooperatives, artisanal milk processors, and transporters. The development of these livestock value chains, however, is constrained by poor food safety and quality, while consumers are also exposed to public health risks due to milk and meat value chain actors' food handling and hygiene practices.This study used Photovoice and participant observation to explore meat and milk value chain actors' food handling and hygiene practices in suburban areas of Addis Ababa and neighbouring Oromia in Ethiopia. The results of this study reveal that milk and meat value chain actors' food handling practices are not aligned with the recommended Ethiopian food safety and quality standards. Low compliance with food safety and quality standards reflected a combination of factors such as lack of incentives, poor road infrastructure and low enforcement of food safety standards.Participatory and visual research methods enable a researcher to collect context-aware data that can lead to the development of policies and intervention strategies that reflect local needs and priorities. The results of this study affirm the need to identify socially acceptable and economically viable policies and intervention strategies that are acceptable to all chain actors; and suggest there is an imperative to train milk and meat value chain actors on good hygiene handling practices, improve road infrastructure, and facilitate access equipment such as fridges and freezers that can contribute to maintaining food safety and quality.

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Background. Patients and caregivers facing complex health decisions must make sense of unfamiliar, emotionally challenging information and experiences. For patients with hematological malignancy, bone marrow transplant (BMT) may be the best chance for a cure but has significant risk of morbidity and mortality. This study aimed to investigate and support patient and caregiver sensemaking as they consider BMT. Methods. Ten BMT patients and 5 caregivers engaged in remote participatory design (PD) workshops. Participants drew timelines of their memorable experiences leading up to BMT. Then, they used transparency paper to annotate their timelines and design improvements to this process. Results. Thematic analysis of drawings and transcripts revealed a 3-phase sensemaking process. In phase 1, participants were introduced to BMT and understood it as a possibility, not an inevitability. In phase 2, they focused on meeting prerequisites including remission and donor identification. Participants came to believe they needed transplant, consequently describing BMT not as a decision between viable options, but that transplant was their "only chance" for survival. In phase 3, participants attended an orientation detailing the extensive risks of transplant, leading to anxiety and doubt. Participants designed solutions that provided reassurance to those grappling with the life-altering impacts of transplant. Conclusions. For patients and caregivers navigating complex health decisions, sensemaking is a dynamic, ongoing process that affects expectations and emotional well-being. Interventions targeting reassurance alongside risk information can alleviate emotional impact and facilitate expectation development. The integration of PD and sensemaking methodologies enables participants to create holistic, tangible representations of experiences while empowering stakeholder engagement in intervention design. This method could be applied to other complex medical contexts to understand lived experiences and develop effective support interventions. Highlights: Bone marrow transplant patients and caregivers experienced an evolving, emotionally challenging process of gradually understanding the transplant procedure and its risks.The solutions that participants designed centered on providing reassurance alongside risk information, suggesting future interventions could target emotional support as patients attempt to meet prerequisites and grapple with the risks of the potentially curative procedure.By viewing the challenges of complex medical decisions in terms of sensemaking and applying visual methods such as participatory design, researchers can facilitate expression of the dynamic, multifaceted, emotional components of experience and empower stakeholder involvement in intervention design.

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Purpose: Treatment for a chronic condition can pose a heavy burden on young people and affect their quality of life. The present study examined young people's experiences with treatment burden and their coping strategies. Patients and Methods: The body mapping method was employed, in which a life-sized outline of someone's body is traced and populated with visual representations, symbols and words. For the present study, a digital tool for body mapping was developed. This is a chat robot which helps young people make a body map by asking questions about their lives, wellbeing and the influence of their treatment on this. In two series of three workshops, ten young people (16 to 25 years) with a chronic, somatic condition created individual body maps using this tool. The body maps were discussed in the group to obtain insight into experiences with treatment burden. The findings were analysed using thematic analysis. In all stages of the study, two adolescents with a chronic condition were involved as co-researchers. Results: The results show that young people with a chronic condition experience considerable treatment burden. Although treatment reduces their symptoms, it also leads to physical and emotional side-effects, restrictions of meaningful activities, issues with future planning, reduced independence, and autonomy and loneliness. Young people apply several strategies to cope with this burden, such as seeking support from others, focusing on the positive, ignoring treatment advice, and seeing a psychologist. Conclusion: Treatment burden is a subjective experience and not merely based on the number or types of treatment. It is therefore vital that young people with a chronic condition discuss their experiences with their care provider. This can help to tailor treatment decisions to their lives and needs.

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Visual examination of visually recognisable substances, including microscopy, focus on targets or contaminants such as particles of animal origin, plant seeds, spore bodies of moulds, sclerotia, packaging material, microplastic and 'Besatz' (everything that differs from the norm). The two principal results are counts (numbers) and weights for macroscopic methods, or presence/absence for microscopic methods. The level of detection equals at least the size of one unit, usually with a weight exceeding 1 mg, which is in the range of parts per million (ppm). These parameters do not follow a normal distribution but Poisson (counts), lognormal (weights) or binomial (Booleans) distributions, with effect on the interpretation of validation parameters. As for other domains, examination methods for visual monitoring need to be properly validated and quality control during actual application is needed. In most cases procedures for validation of visual methods are based on principles adopted from other domains, such as chemical analysis. A series of examples from publications show inconsistent or not correct implementations of these validation procedures, which stress the need for dedicated validation procedures. Identification of legal ingredients and composition analysis in the domain of visual examination relies on the expertise of the laboratory staff, therefore validation of a method usually includes the validation of the expert. In the view of these specific circumstances, a Guidance for quality assurance and control of visual methods has been developed, which are being presented and discussed in this paper. The general framework of the Guidance is adopted from ISO standards (17023, 17043, 13528). Part 1 of the Guidance includes the general background, theory and principles. Part 2 presents the actual validation procedures with experimental designs and equations for calculating the relevant parameters, and can be used as blueprint for a SOP in a quality management system. An EURL and NRL network for physical hazards is strongly recommended.

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INTRODUCTION: There are global calls for better understanding of substance use disorder (SUD) to inform prevention, risk reduction and treatment of this relapse-prone disorder. Our aim in this article is to understand the pathways to recovery of youth in Assam, India who have suffered SUD. METHODS: We recruited 15 participants (11 men and 4 women) via two rehabilitation facilities. All are addicts-in-recovery aged 19-24 years. Material was generated through photo-led interviews, analysed using an inductive variant of thematic analysis and the resulting model refined through expert and participant checks. RESULTS: We present a multiroute, multidirectional pathway to recovery model. It has three phases, Recreational Use, Addiction (Relaxed, Chaotic, Strategic) and Supported Recovery, each phase consisting of cycling between, or transitioning through, a series of stages. CONCLUSIONS: The model enhances psycho-socio-cultural insights into the experience of risk and recovery, and informs prevention and treatment for youth substance misuse in Assam. This is the first model of its kind and an important public health resource. We discuss the possible transferability of the model to a wider range of contexts. PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION: The model presented was generated through analysis of interviews with addicts-in-recovery. Four of these addicts-in-recovery, and two mental health and rehabilitation service providers, conducted participant and expert checks of the model leading to its improvement.

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Heath advocacy (HA) remains a difficult competency to train and assess, in part because practicing physicians and learners carry uncertainty about what HA means and we are missing patients' perspectives about the role HA plays in their care. Visual methods are useful tools for exploring nebulous topics in health professions education; using these participatory approaches with physicians and patients might counteract the identified training challenges around HA and more importantly, remedy the exclusion of patient perspectives. In this paper we share the verbal and visual reflections of patients and physicians regarding their conceptualizations of, and engagement in 'everyday' advocacy. In doing so, we reveal some of HA's hidden dimensions and what their images uncovered about the role of advocacy in patient care. Constructivist grounded theory guided data collection and analysis. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews and photo-elicitation, a visual research method that uses participant generated photographs to elicit participants knowledge and experiences around a particular topic. We invited patients living with chronic health conditions (n = 10) and physicians from diverse medical and surgical specialties (n = 14) to self-select photographs representing their experiences navigating HA in their personal and professional lives. Both groups found taking photographs useful for revealing the nuanced and circumstantial factors that either enabled or challenged their engagement in HA. While patients' photos highlighted their embodiment of HA, physicians' photos depicted HA as something quite elusive or as a complicated and daunting task. Photo-elicitation was a powerful tool in eliciting a diversity of perspectives that exist around the HA role and the work advocates perform; training programs might consider using visuals to augment teaching for this challenging competency.

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Despite the challenges facing Indigenous youth and their communities due to historical and contemporary institutionalised racism in Canada, communities are drawing on the richness of their own histories to reassert their cultural heritage. Doing so supports mental health outcomes of young people in particular, as highlighted in a compelling body of research. The question facing many communities, however, is how they can facilitate such child and youth engagement in order to support related positive mental health outcomes. This article reports on findings from a Participatory Action Research (PAR) study conducted in a First Nations community in Unama'ki (Cape Breton), Atlantic Canada. The study, Spaces & Places, was a partnership between the community-based mental health service provider (Eskasoni Mental Health Services, EMHS), eight community youth (14-18 years old), and a team of academics. Situated within a resilience framework, the team explored the ways in which the community facilitated, or restricted, youth civic and cultural engagement. Foregrounded against a strong legacy of cultural reassertion within the community, findings highlight the core resilience-promoting resources that support positive youth development. Additionally, findings demonstrate how these resources provide meaningful support for youth because of the way in which they are intertwined with one another. Furthermore, cultural engagement is underpinned by the Two-eyed Seeing model, supporting youth to integrate their own culture with settler culture in ways that work best for them. Findings support community-based service structures, and underscore the importance of community resilience in the effective support of Indigenous children and youth.

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Lived experience research related to mental health recovery is advancing, but there remains a lack of narrative material from the perspectives of people from under-represented, non-dominant cultural backgrounds in this domain. This study aimed to explore the lived experiences of mental health recovery in people of culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds in the Australian context. The current study involved a secondary analysis of audio and visual data collected during the digital storytelling project Finding our way in Melbourne, Australia. Thematic analysis was used to understand the lived experience narratives of nine participants in relation to mental health recovery. Five themes were identified through an iterative process of analysis, including Newfound opportunities and care, Family as key motivators and facilitators, Coping and generativity, Cultivating self-understanding and resilience, and Empowerment through social engagement. First person lived experience narratives offer deep insight into understanding the ways in which individuals of marginalised communities conceptualise and embody recovery. These findings further the literature and understanding on how to better serve the needs of people with mental health challenges from CALD communities through informed knowledge of what may be helpful to, and meaningful in, individuals' recoveries.

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Youth mental health has been significantly impacted by COVID-19, with concerns of rising anxiety-related and depressive symptoms and reduced quality of life. This study provides a nuanced understanding of mental health stressors and supports in the lives of youth during the pandemic. Using Collaborative Filmmaking, an embodied, visual, and participatory research method, participants in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, were trained to create, analyze, and screen films about mental health. The films elucidated numerous stressors impacting youth mental health, including educational stressors (e.g., academic pressure and relationships with teachers), personal and social stressors (e.g., social and cultural expectations), and current events (e.g., the election and the political system). Supports included individual level supports (e.g., hobbies, self-care, spending time outdoors), and interpersonal level supports (e.g., family and socializing). Several themes were discussed as both stressors and supports, such as family, COVID-19, and social media. Overall, educational stressors are major contributors to adverse mental health symptoms among youth, which have been magnified by the COVID-19 pandemic. Youth discussions of the importance of self-care and engaging in healthy hobbies demonstrated strong awareness about maintaining mental health, though structural-level recommendations are still needed to improve youth mental health. Screening the Collaborative Films with the public illuminated several additional opportunities for action, including structural and social actions (e.g., changing policies and social norms around mental health). Given the structural nature of the stressors mentioned by participants, systemic changes as well as policy level action and programming are needed to address the intersectional nature of current mental health concerns among youth.

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Métodos que utilizam da produção de fotografias têm sido explorados como instrumentos alternativos de pesquisa qualitativa e intervenção psicológica. Entretanto, ainda há pouco consenso em suas denominações e procedimentos. Nesse contexto, a presente revisão integrativa visa investigar o uso de métodos fotográficos no campo da saúde mental, nos últimos 20 anos. A pesquisa foi realizada nas bases de dados LILACS, PsycNET, PubMed, SciELO e Web of Science. Incluíram-se 49 artigos, e excluíram-se 457. Identificaram-se os métodos: fotovoz, instrumento fotográfico, autofotografia e fotoelicitação. Como potencialidades, destacou-se o uso da fotografia como meio para explorar e compartilhar experiências internas, auxiliar profissionais de saúde e gerar empoderamento. Como desafios, prevaleceram aspectos relacionados ao caráter recente do uso de métodos fotográficos no campo da saúde mental, como: predomínio de amostras pequenas e não generalizáveis, múltiplas metodologias de análise de dados e utilizações inadequadas de terminologias em relação aos procedimentos realizados.

Methods using production of photographs have been explored as alternative instruments of qualitative research and psychological intervention. However, there is still little consensus in their designations and procedures. In this context, this work presents an integrative review aimed at investigating the use of photographic methods in the field of mental health over the last 20 years. The research was conducted on LILACS, PsycNET, PubMed, SciELO and Web of Science databases. Forty-nine articles were accepted and 457 rejected. Four methods were identified: photovoice, photo-instrument, autophotography and photo-elicitation. As potential aspects, the use of photography means exploring and sharing personal experiences, assisting health professionals and creating empowerment. As challenge aspects, the recent feature of photographic methods used in the field of mental health were highlighted, counting on the prevalence of small and non-generable samples, multiple data analysis methodologies and inappropriate uses of designations regarding the procedures that were performed.

Métodos que utilizan la producción de fotos han sido explorados como instrumentos alternativos de investigación cualitativa y intervención psicológica. Sin embargo, aún hay poco consenso en relación a sus denominaciones y procedimientos. Esta revisión integrativa investiga el uso de métodos fotográficos en el campo de la salud mental en los últimos 20 años. La investigación fue realizada en las bases LILACS, PsycNET, PubMed, SciELO y Web of Science. Cuarenta y nueve artículos fueron aceptos y 457 excluidos. Se identificaron los siguientes métodos: fotovoz, instrumento fotográfico, autofotografía y fotoelicitación. Como potencialidad ese destacó el uso de fotografías como un medio para explorar y compartir experiencias internas, ayudar a los profesionales de la salud y generar empoderamiento. En los desafíos prevalecieron la caracterización aún reciente del uso de métodos fotográficos en la salud mental, el predominio de muestras pequeñas y no generalizables, múltiples metodologías de análisis de datos y inadecuado de terminologías.

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