Community-produced materials for health education.

The trend toward dependence on experts and away from reliance on self and other members of the community is antithetical to health education goals. The development of collaborate models for learning and for creating learning materials is 1 way that a clients confidence can be built up and the competence of clients recognized. A photonovel is 1 form of participatory learning model. A photonovel is a booklet similar to an American comic book but photographs of real people and real places replace the cartoons. The dialoque is presented in word bubbles as in comic books. In 1977-78 an applied research branch of the New York State Department of Health the Rodent Control Evaluation Laboratory in Troy adapted the basic concepts of the photonovel to a participatory learning model. Communications were established between agency staff and members of the community in an effort to arrive at a truly collaborative relationship. With the agency staff acting as facilitators members of the community produced a 16 page photonovel complete with sketches of characters and dialog for the frame of every page. Many benefits can accrue from a participatory learning model and client produced material. At the top of the list are the respect and dignity that result from having people involved in all aspects of a program that affects their lives. When community clients are co-participants with agency personnel who are serving as facilitators a whole new level of shared respect competence and interdependence is stimulated. Program goals are enhanced as clients and staff discuss a problem the solutions to that problem or skills to help solve. The clients who participate in a project are more likely to remain in the community than is a transient “expert.” Many topics or skills relating to health would be appropriate subjects for photonovels.