Existential photography and its role in caring for the elder
07/06/2016
Caring for dependent people, whether children or elderly persons, produces opposed emotions, which can cause caregivers to feel tired and become exhausted. Caregivers can optimise their own strategies, not only in caring for others, but also in accompanying them: being flexible, resilient and creative; controlling oneself, solving problems and making decisions. Researchers consider that "caregivers who know how to gain perspective not only learn how to take care of themselves, they also learn how better to connect with the needs of others".
A team formed by home caregivers from Sant Cugat, UAB lecturers and the existential photographer Raquel Banchio will propose health tips and how to use new prosocial tools to improve the life of caregivers; all of this, through the results of the European project Together, will take place on Saturday 11 June in a workshop.
The group LIPA (Laboratori d'Investigació Prosocial Aplicada) of the UAB has spent over 30 years studying the tools which can help to optimise the quality, frequency ad amount of prosocial behaviours of individuals and groups.
"Healthy prosocial communication can prevent and repair damage from aggressive communication; they are the feelings, attitudes and behaviours that can benefit the other person", explains Pilar Escotorin from the LIPA-UAB and coordinator of the project at the UAB.
The project Together is a European project led by the Azienda Sanitaria Locale de Caserta, Italy, while the UAB leads the project in Barcelona. The project aims to make visible the complexity of this profession and provide it with the prestige it deserves.
It will be implemented until August 2016 in the Czech Republic, Italy and Austria. Approximately 100 caregivers from these three countries have participated in the experimental phase. After 2016, the European Union will assess and use the results of this and other similar projects with the aim of strengthening the system of training and qualification of European caregivers, thus recognising the technical abilities of these professionals and the efforts they make.
At the UAB, the project has been led by Robert Roche and Pilar Escotorín from the LIPA inter-university group. Also collaborating in the project is CORE Mental Health and, in the dissemination phase, the Computer Vision Centre (CVC) through the Living Lab of Vollpelleres (Sant Cugat del Vallès).
The workshop on 11 June will unite family members and caregivers, within a concept of scientific transfer perfectly adapted to the project, and prepared jointly with the library, the CVC and the AFA Vallès Occidental (Association of Relatives of Alzheimer's Patients). Four personal stories will be explained through four photographic reports of caregivers in Barcelona and Sant Cugat.
11 JUNE WORKSHOP PROGRAMME
10:00 a.m. Registration and material distribution
10:30 a.m. Accompanying And Caring For Others While Preventing Exhaustion. The International Project TOGETHER. Lucía Cortés, caregiver; Yoshira Porto, caregiver; Dr Mariona Portell, UAB.
11:00 a.m. Training the Eye through Photography: Existential Photography and Prosociality. Raquel Banchio, photographer, and Dr Pilar Escotorin, LIPA-UAB.
11:30 a.m. How to Connect More and Better with Others. A Communication Model Which Heals and Cares For Our Mental Health: Prosocial Communication. LIPA-UAB.
12:30 a.m. Photography as Revealing Resource. Interactive Presentation of the Photographic Exhibition of the TOGETHER Project: Stories, Cases and Declarations. Raquel Banchio, photographer.
More information: https://cursoslipa.com/2016/05/23/dissabte-11-de-juny-familiars-i-cuidadors-testimonis-i-practiques-per-millorar-la-qualitat-de-vida/