A room with a view: a metaphor analysis of Vietnamese women’s representations of living with depression using photo elicitation

Abstract

Depression is complex and it is known that how people name and give meaning to this experience when they are from cross cultural backgrounds differs to that of dominant Anglo cultures. Yet surprisingly very little is known about the naming and meaning-making conventions particularly for Vietnamese communities. In Anglo cultures, people commonly describe their experiences of depression as ‘travelling through dark tunnels toward a light’; ‘climbing out of a hole’; ‘a black dog’, and the ‘descent of a black cloud’. These metaphoric representations provide us with visual messages and new meanings about the experience of depression and how it impacts individuals. In this article, we describe a study that aimed to examine if a photo elicitation method could provide a group of women from Vietnamese backgrounds with another language set by which to represent their experience of depression in the face-to-face interview context. Women were provided with a digital camera and asked to take a minimum of 10 photos about their everyday experiences of living with depression. Recruitment and face-to-face interviews were completed with an interpreter already known to participants employed at the community health centre. Participants were asked to select five key photos for discussion within the interpreted interview. In the following article, a metaphor analysis is presented to reflect on how the photos enabled further insight into Vietnamese women’s representations of living with depression and examine the application of this participatory visual method for cross cultural research settings.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors acknowledge the contribution of Ms Huong Tran to the recruitment, interpretation of interviews and reflection on the methodology and the participation of the community health centre in which the research was undertaken. The authors also acknowledge the participation and intellectual contributions of investigator members Professor Marilys Guillemin and Dr Sarah Drew in the establishment and data collection phases of this project and research support provided by Dr Alison Brookes for the project and the previous project led by Professor Jane Gunn into cross cultural experiences of depression in Vietnamese, East Timorese and Sundanese communities (the re-order extension study). Parts of this manuscript were presented as a mini-keynote for the International Qualitative Methods Conference April 26-30th 2015 in Melbourne, Australia.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University of Melbourne Interdisciplinary Seed Funding Scheme, Melbourne Social Equity Research Institute under Grant number: IDSEED2012.

Notes on contributors

Victoria Jane Palmer

Victoria Jane Palmer has a PhD in applied ethics and is the lead of the integrated mental health research programme located within the Department of General Practice at the University of Melbourne. Her research interests include intersections between narrative, embodiment and ethical theory. Dr Palmer has published on using innovative qualitative methodologies to examine complex topics of severe mental illness, depression, ethics, quality improvement in health care, co-design and co-production and recovery in primary care settings.

John Furler

John Furler has a PhD in primary care management for diabetes and is a practising general practitioner. His research interests include developing responses to social health inequities, improving diabetes management care for vulnerable populations and cross cultural research. Dr Furler has published on the cross cultural context of depression, inequities in diabetes care and patient centred care.