Revealing the emotion work of military caregivers through PhotoVoice

Providing care and support for Veterans with Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) involves emotion work on the part of informal family caregivers. PhotoVoice methods are uniquely suited to capturing this invisible work, which includes keeping things calm, establishing new structures and routines, and suppressing emotions. This research highlights the need to recognise and support informal family caregivers by helping them to have honest discussions around emotion work.

The research team was composed of three PhD-level anthropologist investigators (Traci H. Abraham, Gala True, Sarah S. Ono), one qualitative data analyst with a Master of Social Work (Ryan E. Bender), and one veteran who served as both a program specialist and qualitative data analyst (Ray Facundo). To translate qualitative findings into meaningful recommendations for improving healthcare delivery at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the research team was supported by a Laraine Winter, PhD and Helene Moriarty, PhD and RN.