Global Journal of Community Psychology Practice

Volume 12, No. 4

Published December 20, 2021

Articles

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    Alexios Brailas

    Digital storytelling and the narrative turn in psychology: Creating spaces for collective empowerment

    In this article, we propose a model that combines digital storytelling with narrative practice to create a facilitated peer-to-peer experiential learning space for collective empowerment. This model was inspired by an educational intervention that utilized participatory digital comic strip making to raise students’ awareness of bullying and its consequences. The makerspace involved allows for the creation of digital artifacts representing participants’ personal narratives. Narrative practice is grounded in the idea that there are no problematic people but rather not effective narratives about how people are supposed to act. Making digital stories, getting constructive peers feedback, and then releasing more polyphonic and adaptive sequel versions is proposed here as an effective way to raise participants’ awareness and help them integrate different points of view, as well as enrich their narratives on critical social phenomena. A significant advantage of the digital storytelling genre employed is that the digital artifacts produced have a concrete material presence: they can be shared, performed, or modified. Participants, with the help of their peers, participate in a group process facilitated by their teacher, aiming to locate and change problematic elements in their stories, and by doing so they materialize and consolidate the improvement in their personal narratives.

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    Renato M. Liboro, Tammy C. Yates, Charles Fehr, George Da Silva, Francisco Ibañez-Carrasco, Andrew D. Eaton, Daniel Pugh, Lori E. Ross, Paul A. Shuper

    Community-Level Resources Bolstering Resilience to HIV/AIDS: Perspectives of Middle-Aged and Older Men Who Have Sex with Men Living with HIV/AIDS

    Most prior research on resilience to HIV/AIDS has utilized quantitative tools (e.g., scales and surveys) to examine individual-level assets (e.g., self-efficacy, hope, optimism) that researchers believe represent or approximate resilience to HIV/AIDS with minimal consideration for the perspectives of men who have sex with men (MSM), the population that has remained at greatest risk of, and the most impacted by HIV/AIDS in North America since the 1980s. The aim of this qualitative study is to identify community-level resources that bolster resilience to HIV/AIDS based specifically on the perspectives and lived experiences of middle-aged and older (MAO) MSM living with HIV/AIDS. Employing a Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) approach involving the meaningful and active engagement of MSM at multiple levels (i.e., as research team members, peer researchers, Community Advisory Board representatives, community partners, and study participants), forty-one MAO MSM living with HIV/AIDS from Ontario, Canada, were included in the study’s semi-structured interviews. Utilizing thematic analysis, four major themes were identified from the interview data: (a) the 2SLGBTQ+ community; (b) community-based not-for-profit organizations; (c) public health services; and (d) neighbourhood support programs. This article discusses the value of community-level resources as important additions to individual-level assets for bolstering resilience to HIV/AIDS, as well as the implications of the study’s findings and limitations for future HIV/AIDS services and research.

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    Michele M. Schlehofer, Yuki Okubo, Dominic D. W. Williams

    Assessing Feminist Community Psychology Pedagogy

    Feminist pedagogy and community psychology share many ideological similarities, including an action-oriented approach to social problems, a focus on the voices of marginalized communities, and an emphasis on empowerment. There is a dearth of research on Feminist Community Psychology Pedagogy (FCPP), yet there is a compelling case for implementation of this approach in the undergraduate psychology curriculum. This article presents focus group findings from seven students who took an undergraduate community psychology course taught with FCPP, to better understand the impact of this teaching approach on their educational experiences. Thematic analysis identified 10 themes, including those regarding student professional growth, the empowering process of collaborative power-sharing, and a deeper understanding of social problems within a broader ecological context. The findings suggest FCPP enhances students’ educational and career development, providing tools otherwise underdeveloped by other pedagogies. These findings have implications for further research and instruction regarding FCPP, as well as broader implications for community psychology as a discipline.

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    Christine Ngaruiya, Kunmi Sobowale, Anniyizhai Annamalai

    Reverse Innovation in Mental Health: Review and Recommendations

    The global health community has strived to attain equitable partnerships in global mental health. To this end, there has been a growing interest in Reverse Innovation. This is defined as the development of an initiative in a Low- or Middle-Income Country setting that is then adopted by a Western counterpart or High-Income Country setting. While often referenced in other branches of medicine, Reverse Innovation remains especially underexplored in mental health care. This paper presents a commentary and literature review examining the status quo on Reverse Innovation in mental health. Barriers to knowledge exchange between Low- and Middle-Income, and High-Income country partners are discussed, and potential solutions are presented.