‣ Introduction ‣ Elaine's Story ‣ Research: A study of resiliency ‣ Renal Community Photo Project Participant Stories‣ Learnings: A healing journey ‣ Collaboration: Through a different lens
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Today, nearly 49,000 Canadians are being treated for kidney failure. Of those, more than 57 per cent are on dialysis.
Dialysis is a process that removes excess water, solutes and toxins from the blood for people whose kidneys can no longer perform these functions naturally. The treatment typically involves four-hour visits to a dialysis unit, three times per week for the entirety of person’s life.
Researchers wanted to better understand what gave some dialysis patients the resilience to remain hopeful, outward looking and enjoying a rich life, while at the same time healing. They gave dialysis patients cameras to document their lives outside the dialysis unit to glimpse into their lives and better understand the healing journey.
Thirty-four people took nearly 1,500 photos providing a wealth of information for the researchers and clinicians to learn more about resiliency and the redefinition of one's self in the face of diagnosis and chronic disease.
This is the Renal Community Photo Project.
Today, nearly 49,000 Canadians are being treated for kidney failure. Of those, more than 57 per cent are on dialysis.
Researchers wanted to better understand what gave some dialysis patients the resilience to remain hopeful, outward looking and enjoying a rich life, while at the same time healing. They gave dialysis patients cameras to document their lives outside the dialysis unit to glimpse into their lives and better understand the healing journey.
Thirty-four people took nearly 1,500 photos providing a wealth of information for the researchers and clinicians to learn more about resiliency and the redefinition of one's self in the face of diagnosis and chronic disease.
This is the Renal Community Photo Project.
Elaine was told she was in the early stages of kidney failure the day after giving birth to her oldest daughter, Joanna. “It was strange to feel the high of being a first-time parent, and at the same time, feel such a low,” Elaine said.
If you could take only 24 photos to portray the most meaningful parts of your life, the parts of your life that bring you joy, give you the resilience you need to push through and that define your journey, what would you take?
Your home? Your loves ones? Or would you wait for the perfect sunset or waves crashing into the shore? These were the questions Dr. Chris McIntyre hoped would be answered as dialysis patients documented their lives as part of a unique research study.
The researchers realized that the photography was acting as an agent of change for the participants, for those viewing them, and for the researchers as well. "The photos made us redefine the question we thought we asked in light of the results and the feedback," said Dr. McIntyre.
As a collaboratively-driven research project that enfolded health care and art, the Renal Community Photo Project maintained thought and focus on how the research process was carried out, and ensured the creative impulse behind this collaboration remained at play. It studied health research through a different lens.
