Interprofessional graduate student team co-presents with creator of Visual Voices arts-based research methodology
On Wednesday, April 20, 2016 an interprofessional team of graduate students from the University of New England co-presented with Michael Yonas, Dr.P.H., M.P.H., senior program officer for Social Innovation, Research, and Special Initiatives at The Pittsburgh Foundation.
Public health students, Collyn Baeder, M.P.H. ’16, and Zoe Hull, M.P.H. ’16, and occupational therapy students, Michaela Hoffman, M.S.O.T. ’16, Adrian Jung, M.S.O.T. ’16, Rebecca Masterjohn, M.S.O.T. ’16, and Virginia Sedarski, M.S.O.T. ’16, partnered with Yonas to present “Visual Voices: A Participatory Method for Engaging Communities in Research and Knowledge Transfer,” to students, faculty, and staff on both the Biddeford and Portland campuses.
Visual Voices is an arts-based intervention and participatory research methodology for use with diverse populations across the lifespan. Yonas created the Visual Voices methodology and uses it primarily with adolescent populations. He mentored the students on a Visual Voices project they conducted last year with a local group of older adults. After the Portland campus presentation, a reception was held where the older adult participants of the students’ Visual Voices project and Yonas had the chance to meet for the first time and discuss their experiences with the program.
The presentations, reception, and student project were made possible by the Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC), Interprofessional Education Collaborative director Shelley Cohen Konrad, Ph.D., L.C.S.W., F.N.A.P., and IPEC’s Student-led Interprofessional Mini-Grant Program, with generous support from the Office of Research and Scholarship, Brian K. Dallaire, Pharm.D., and Deborah Dallaire. IPEC provides interprofessional programming and experiences that bring together students from across the University’s 13 health professions to learn with, from, and about each other in team-based settings designed to improve quality, safety, and patient-centered care.
