Boosting Resilience: Photovoice as a Tool for Promoting Well-Being, Social Cohesion, and Empowerment Among the Older Adult During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

This paper examines how older adults who participated in an online photovoice-based group intervention program reported their experience. In a qualitative-phenomenological study, in which 13 older-adult people participated, data were collected through semi-structured in-depth interviews and analyzed through content analysis. The findings point to three central themes: a) Challenges—technical difficulties, difficulties in finding a subject for photography, investing time in photography, and an emotional-intellectual effort to put their experience into photography; b) Growth: New knowledge and skills—acquiring new knowledge, acquiring skills, experiencing skills regardless of age, and empowerment; c) Meaning—reflexivity, the ability to project feelings onto images, connection to the outside world, mindfulness, ability to choose, creativity, and critical consciousness. The findings share the way in which the use of creative visual engagement with photography contributed to coping with various challenges and enabled various gains within the process among the older-adult participants.