UNCC Communication Health Care Narratives Paper

Advocacy for others

Narrating Patienthood ch 4

Background to chapter authors

Amanda Young

https://www.memphis.edu/communication/people/young.php (Links to an external site.)

Often groups of people and individuals need someone else (including organizations) pushing the world to listen to, recognize, and respect their experiential  stories–and to push change in the world around health policy and practices–hence, Advocacy for others

for this unit we will go somewhere else in the world (Liberia) and touch on epidemic experiences.

K Ch 4–Daugherty and Young “If I die, who will tell their stories?…”

1 Key questions to engage to chapter:

How do the chapter writers position his (Akoi’s) story within his (Liberian) culture as a legacy, and as one that speaks of

(a) resource issues,

(b) emotional and mental health issues, and

(c) culture.

She (Daugherty) finds herself telling his story to us for him as part of her research.

2 Covid connection: given our recent pandemic experience with Covid, in our corner of the world, reflect on the following

Connection to Covid:

How did these issues of resources, emotional and mental health, and culture also manifest in our experiences with Covid as a nation/culture?

what might be the focus/content/moral of the story you might pass on to the next generation about this “once in a hundred year” pandemic?

How is this chapter structured, and how do the authors use narrative (effectively)?

3 Exercise: Advocacy campaign for others: “Be the match”

Getting people to join the bone marrow registry and to donate is one of the most difficult in terms of health comm messaging…

explore the followign site:

https://my.bethematch.org/s/join?language=en_US&joinCode=marrow17&gclid=Cj0KCQjwg7KJBhDyARIsAHrAXaHthMjZFKrlINo4K1ZtxVIBUccrWxMIqDNd9chijkph6b_kWsB_LdEaAhpsEALw_wcB (Links to an external site.)

Imagine yourself browsing the site as a potential bone marrow donor.  If you would definitely donate irrespective of the details of the process of donating, say so in the reflection. If you are hesitant or resistant, make note of when you would likely stop engaging with the registry request in real life in terms of the following stages of information:

1 You receieve an unsolicited email entitled, “be the match” and have no experience with family or friends needing marrow donation.

2 After reading the email plea, you are directed to click on a live link to a related web site.

3 You see an image of a young African American woman receiving treatlment as a resuly of donation. The caption reads “Save a life.”

4 You see the process involves 4 stages: Registration, swab procedure, awaiting a match, and donation.

5 It may “hurt” or have risks associated with donation (vague info)

6 To register, you need to disclose age, weight, height and other personal details.

7 there are no narrative testimonials on the site.

Key isues of challenges of gaining public participation and changing behavior (joining/donating. How would you improve their outreach communication/messaging?

How is/might narrative (be) used to improve registry responses?

Reply:

summarize your response to Akoi’s story,the connection to the Covid pandemic, and to the bone marrow site.

Post a brief reflection on what condition or for what population you would most like to advocate for. or most like to see advocacy improved/developed for. What is the connection to you as a scholar/person?