Promising Practices for Healing Psychological Trauma of Service Members, Families, Veterans, and Community. Fairfax, Virginia. (Forthcoming)  May 11, 2012

More than one in four U.S. veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have suffered a service-related head injury and two-thirds reported depression. The great concern is that all the problems we’re seeing with head injury, PTSD, and depression could be the tip of the iceberg. There is an urgent need for services that can promote healing, strengthen relationships, and reintegrate our warriors with their families, communities, schools, and employers. The workshop’s goal is to strengthen the capacity of the professional workforce and the community to effectively respond to the concerns and needs of service members, veterans, and their families in order to heal psychological trauma...

Read more and see the list of invited guest speakers and presenters by clicking here.
 

Co-Presenter with Dr Mary Jo Larson, and Dr Mary Brolin. Communications for advocacy: Using the concept of a policy image to change attitudes and policies related to addiction treatment. Poster presentation. At the 35th National Conference, Association for Medical Education in Research and Substance Abuse (AMERSA), Sheraton Crystal City Hotel, Arlington, VA. November 4th 2011.
 

  Laura will also be facilitating a 90-minute seminar at the 35th National Conference, Association for Medical Education in Research and Substance Abuse (AMERSA) on “Talking with Pictures: Concepts and Hands-on Experience” for researchers and clinicians. This workshop will briefly cover the foundations of photovoice, provide examples of photos and narratives from work with brain injury survivors and people living with HIV/AIDS, and provide hands-on experience with several photovoice steps: (a) becoming a visual researcher, (b) discussing images and writing narratives, and (c) developing project themes. The workshop will culminate in a brainstorming session by session attendees on possibilities for adapting the photovoice methodology to their educational, research, service, and evaluation programs.

The 2011 AMERSA Executive Board and Workshop Review Committee, chose Dr. Lorenz's workshop, Talking with Pictures: Concepts and Hands-on Experience, as the 2010 Best Workshop Award. The award will be presented during the Award Plenary Session of the 2011 AMERSA national meeting which will be held November 3rd-5th 2011 at the Sheraton Crystal City Hotel, in Arlington, VA.  Click here to read more information on our Lectures and Workshops Page.
 

Laura will be facilitating a class PHOTOVOICE: Speaking with Pictures. As Guest Lecturer, Informational Design and Visual Literacy, University of Massachusetts Boston, Instructional Design Program. For more information on this course and a copy of the presentation please go (here).

Laura will be giving a presentation 'Using Participatory Visual Methods in Social Science Research'. Lunchtime Lecture for Sustainable International Development MA Advanced Study and Joint Degree Students, At the Heller School for Social Policy & Management, Brandeis University, on October 24th 2011. For a copy of the presentation please go (here).
 

Lorenz, L.S. (2011). Using visual metaphors to communicate lived experience with an invisible injury. Oral paper presentation. Addiction Health Services Research (AHSR) 2011 conference. Fairfax, VA: George Mason University, Mason Inn and Conference Center, October 4. Click here to read more information from our Presentations Page.
 

  - Brain Injury X-Posed: The Survivor’s View PhotoVoice II

Members of the "Amazing" Brain Injury Survivor Support Group in Framingham, Massachusetts embarked on a 2nd new PhotoVoice Project entitled (PhotoVoice II). The exhibit was prepared by the participants and facilitators over eight-weeks and took place from September through December 2009...

View more this extraordinary 2nd PhotoVoice project by clicking here.
 

Congratulations!  Dr Laura S. Lorenz recent Special Problems Divisions election winner, elected division officer, Disabilities Co-Chair, 2011-2013 for the Society for the Study of Social Problems (SSSP).
 

 Lorenz, L. S. (2011 May). Teaching empathy: Photos as narrative tools in clinical care for brain injury patients. Oral Paper. Teaching Narrative and Teaching through Narrative, International Conference, Nordic Network of Narrative Studies, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland, May 26th-28th, 2011

Abstract - (PDF) 37 Kilobytes
Presentation - (PDF) 1.42 Megabytes 

Bartlett, S., Lorenz, L., Rankin, T., Elias, E., Mustafa, R. and K. Weider. (2011, March). Looking back, looking forward: Understanding the impact of using an assistive technology device (ATD) - Participatory visual methods. Exceptional Parent Magazine. TBI-ROC, Part Eight, b: pp 26-28 Article -  (PDF) 70 Kilobytes

Bartlett, S., Lorenz, L., Rankin, T., Elias, E., Mustafa, R. and K. Weider. (2011, February). Traumatic brain injury: Looking back, looking forward. Exceptional Parent Magazine.  TBI-ROC, Part Eight, a: pp 30-32. Article -  (PDF) 458 Kilobytes

- The Lexington Minuteman Community Newspaper. 
  by Michael Phillis

 The Road to Recovery - Lexington Facility offers hope to Brain Injury Patients:
 

 'Lorenz is a partner in a new project at the Douglas House (Lexington, MA) that will enable researchers to test the effectiveness of various rehabilitation techniques on the recovery of TBI patients.'...  (PDF) 743 Kilobytes

 Lorenz, Laura S. (2011, Online February 18th). A Way Into Empathy: A 'Case' of Photo-elicitation in Illness Research. Health: An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Social Study of Health, Illness and Medicine, 15, 3, May 2011, pp 259-276, Special Number on ‘Another way of knowing: art, disease, and illness experience.’ Guest Editors, Alan Radley and Susan Bell.

Lorenz, L. S. and Chilingerian, Jon A. (2011). Using Visual and Narrative Methods to Achieve Fair Process in Clinical Care. JoVE - Journal of Visualized Experiments (February 16th 2011).  Video (14:32 Min).  Read more by clicking here.
 

Hardcover 200 Pages
ISBN: 978-1588267283

Learn more about the book and order from here: Lynne Rienner Publishers, Barnes & Noble, and more.

  “Incredibly important…. a must-read for people who care about brain injury. Lorenz provides a genuinely fresh way of allowing survivors to provide their own perspectives on life-change experience. This innovative and touching book will change the way we think about—and respond to—the experience of brain injury survivors.”  –Prof. Mark Sherry, University of Toledo

Students and practitioners of rehabilitation therapies, medicine, social science, and social policy will find this refreshing book to be informative and useful. Brain injury survivors and their families will recognize their own experiences and find hope. Clinicians will discover a new approach to improving their care for persons with hidden disabilities.

Note: Do you have a copy of the book yet? Would you like to say something to Laura about it? Please let us know, Laura would love to hear from you. Email her at laura@lslorenz.com, please include "Re: Your new Book Brain Injury Survivors." in the subject line. Write a review and let others know how you like it!  (e.g  Amazon.com, Barnes & Nobel customer reviews, etc).