Jill Yamasaki

Patterns of family health history communication among older African American adults

This qualitative study examined patterns of communication regarding family health history among older African American adults. The authors conducted 5 focus groups and 6 semi-structured interviews with African Americans aged 60 years and older (N = 28). The authors identified 4 distinct patterns of family health history communication: noncommunication, open communication, selective communication (communication restricted to certain people or topics), and one-way communication (communication not reciprocated by younger family members). In general, participants favored open family health history communication, often resulting from desires to change patterns of noncommunication in previous generations regarding personal and family health history. Some participants indicated that they were selective about what and with whom they shared health information in order to protect their privacy and not worry others. Others described family health history communication as one-way or unreciprocated by younger family members who appeared uninterested or unwilling to share personal and family health information. The communication patterns that the authors identified are consistent with communication privacy management theory and with findings from studies focused on genetic testing results for hereditary conditions, suggesting that individuals are consistent in their communication of health and genetic risk information. Findings may guide the development of health message strategies for African Americans to increase family health history communication.

“That Was Grown Folks’ Business”: Narrative Reflection and Response in Older Adults’ Family Health History Communication

Given the importance of family health history and the pivotal role of older adults in communicating it, this study examines how African American older adults (a) characterize their understandings of health-related conditions in their family histories and (b) rationalize their motivations and constraints for sharing this information with current family members. Using narrative theory as a framework, we illustrate how the participants reflect on prior health-related experiences within the family to respond to moral and practical calls for communicating family health information to current relatives. Specifically, our analysis highlights how storied family secrets—as constructed by 28 participants in group and individual interviews—reveal and inform shifting cultural and generational practices that shape the lived health behaviors and communication of older adults at greater risk for health disparities.

Though much is taken, much abides: the storied world of aging in a fictionalized retirement home.

This study explores one elderly authors accounts of life within a fictionalized retirement home to understand how meanings of age are storied within a collective community and offered as alternative narratives to the dominant discourse of aging in our society. An examination of the five novels in content and form reveals how older individuals, acting as embodied and social beings, can reclaim meanings of age through the stories they share. Rather than perpetuate a one-dimensional view of later life, octogenarian Effie Leland Wilder deliberately stories her novels with multifaceted accounts that acknowledge the positive and negative experiences of growing older. Narrative medicine and narrative gerontology position imagination as essential for recognizing, understanding, and empathizing with the lived realities of disparate individuals. This study offers an important understanding of the ways in which storytellers and story-listeners can make sense of aging through fictive stories and literary ways of knowing. Implications for future research and practice are also discussed.

Age Accomplished, Performed, and Failed: Liz Young as Old on The Biggest Loser

This essay examines how three overarching narratives—decline, optimization, and transformation—influence Liz Youngs embodied performance of age as a contestant on The Biggest Loser and fuel fan-based discourse surrounding her performance. Throughout the competition, Liz portrays herself as old, thereby reinforcing societys long-standing narrative of decline while rejecting contemporary narratives of optimization and transformation. In so doing, she angers loyal viewers who champion the shows inherent story of hope in ways that both reject and reinforce societal ageism. These competing constructions on both the show and related fan-based message boards ultimately constitute prevailing expectations for individuals to act their age—with pronounced implications for when they seemingly do or do not.

The communicative role of companion pets in patient-centered critical care

OBJECTIVE This study examines a personal pet hospital visitation program dedicated to preserving the human-animal bond during chronic, critical, or terminal illness to understand the novel ways companion pets facilitate meaningful communication between patients, providers, and families in hospital settings. METHODS I thematically analyzed data collected through a variety of qualitative methods, including participant observation, informal and semi-structured interviews, and a review of organizational materials. RESULTS The presence of a patients personal pet prompted stories and behaviors characterized by (1) compassion, (2) connection, and (3) response between patients, providers, and family members. CONCLUSION Personal pet hospital visits facilitate storied conversations, foster healing relationships, and offer alternative ways of knowing that can promote greater understandings of the patients psychosocial context for more personalized care and improved well-being. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS Patient-centered critical care requires meaningful consideration of a patients health, well-being, and comfort. When appropriate, the therapeutic benefits of companion animals and the deep personal bonds between patients and their pets should be acknowledged and provided as part of this care.

Aging with service, socialization, and support: The work of faith-based stories in a lifetime community

This project explores the impact that stories told through the church have on rural older adults and their perceptions of community resources, possibilities, and responsibilities as they age in the same small town where they have lived most, if not all, of their lives. I combine qualitative research practices with narrative theorizing to understand the ways in which faith-based stories work with, for, and on community members. I seek to understand how these stories foster a culture of altruism and spirit of stewardship that can ultimately build an inclusive community, nurture a sense of responsibility across generations, and enable residents to age in place with meaningful connection, purpose, and support.

Creating New Normals in Cancer Care: A Review of The Art of the Possible

“It can’t be cancer. Kids don’t get cancer.” The Art of the Possible, an evocative one-hour documentary from co-producers Harter and Hayward (2010), examines the poignant journeys of five families striving to create new normals in the midst of life with cancer. The young people at the heart of the film—Colleen, Sara, Emily, Logan, and Casey—have osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer that typically presents during adolescence. Through interviews, family videos, and the filmmakers’ camera, we see how cancer diagnoses abruptly transform lives and identities, and we witness the ways in which long-term cancer treatments disrupt taken-for-granted routines, relationships, and realities. Most significantly, the film highlights Dr. Pete’s innovative beliefs and medical practices at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. Dr. Pete works closely with the film’s principal families in Houston, as well as with the doctors treating them in their home states. In a powerful testament to the resiliency of the human spirit and the therapeutic value of humanized medicine, he introduces them—and us—to the art of the possible when navigating cancer treatment and ongoing life. Given Hayward’s talents as an independent documentary filmmaker and Harter’s feminist and narrative lenses, as well as her passionate commitment to engaged scholarship with vulnerable individuals facing difficult life circumstances, The Art of the Possible is a compelling and noteworthy