Metaphors of loss and transition: An appreciative inquiry

Abstract

In this qualitative research study, we have used the arts-based research methodology, Appreciative Inquiry, to conduct a broadly based thematic and narrative analysis of art, loss/transition, and healing in formal/institutional and informal/family healthcare settings. Drawing on 21 loosely structured 1-hour interviews with African, British, Canadian and US caregivers, we have identified 13 overlapping themes of loss and healing. We use these themes to assess the broad scope of art in formal and informal care and palliation; to embed loss as an intrinsic health issue; and to consider art's capacity to offer insight and resolution in professional/family care partnerships as well as population health. We suggest that experiential and narrative data offer as valid an “evidence base” as quantitative data to explore the many critical dimensions of art-for-health theory and practice. Our findings underscore the vital and welcome interaction of art and science in global healthcare practice, education, research and policy.

Keywords:

• appreciative inquiry
• art
• loss
• palliative care

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the following agencies for generous support of their research into death education, palliative care, and the arts: The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) (Lander, 2007–2010) and The National Collaborating Centre for Determinants of Health, Canada (NCC-DH) (Graham-Pole & Lander, 2007–2008).

Notes

^1. From the Brothers Grimm's earlier version of “Little Red Riding Hood” retrieved August 11, 2008 from D.L. Ashliman, http://www.pitt.edu/∼dash/type0333.html

^2. We resonate with the term “care partners”, which we first heard in this film, because it empowers individuals and communities to take control over determinants of their health, as first advocated in the WHO's Ottawa charter of health promotion (1986).

^3. We have borrowed from Edmund Carpenter's distinction between preservable and evanescent art to propose the idea of a “preservable–evanescent continuum” inherent in the art of caregiving (Carpenter, 2004; Lander & Graham-Pole, 2008b).