Margaret McGladrey, assistant professor of health management and policy at the University of Kentucky College of Public Health and the project's leader, said one component of the effort uses photography. She wants to empower people to share their perspectives and lived experiences through images depicting real community issues.
"To identify those shared story threads folks in the local health department might be seeing, extension office might be seeing, that a rape crisis center might be seeing in their individual sectors," McGladrey outlined.
In eastern Kentucky, some physicians are using the storytelling method to improve rural medicine practices and patient care. It's also helpful in training clinicians to listen closely to patients’ concerns about illness, identity, and meaning.
McGladrey argued the project demonstrates how storytelling can be used in scientific research.
"What storytelling allows us to do is kind of take that professionalization of gatekeeping or barrier to entry in this kind of work and really allow everyone who's got a phone, who's got a perspective on what's happening in their community, to participate," McGladrey contended.
In another example, advocates at Louisville's Center for Women and Families are using storytelling techniques to help survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence build deeper connections and facilitate healing.
