What is depression? Community-Centered Mental Health Innovations for Latinos- #photovoice expo that include community perspectives on mental health https://www.jhcentrosol.org/depression-publications
Curated by our colleague Marzena Maksym and hosted by Alison White at The Department of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center.
Using photovoice, a participatory action research method, Centro SOL invited Latino community members to take photographs representing their perspectives on depression. Participants discussed the meaning of the photos and proposed actions to address the problems they identified. “We express our voice through these images because if we don’t express ourselves no one will guess us, no one will know, we have to knock on doors”. – Participant. In the discussions, participants addressed three questions: What is depression? What people from my community say about depression. Where do we look for resources and why? What are the main obstacles in accessing them? The process of taking pictures and telling stories helped participants to reflect on their personal and community experience. It helped to create a critical dialogue and share knowledge about community coping strategies.
Some of the images show stark beauty, others stark loneliness, and some capture hints that the world may be slightly off-kilter. They show obstacles to accessing mental health care such as provider shortages, lack of insurance, time constraints and a reluctance to seek help. Some of them show hope, resilience and a sense of community belonging. The images are accompanied by revealing captions that can be as surprising as the photos themselves.
Learn more at: jhcentrosol.org/depression-publications
Interested in hosting the expo? Message us!
#HispanicHeritageMonth #jhcentrosol #mentalhealth #community