Narrative Research in Disability and Rehabilitation
Narrative research, an area of qualitative research concerned with what is communicated orally or literally between people, requires the combination of old traditions and new methodologies. The University of Michigan Health System has an illustrious history of narration: patients telling doctors what troubles them, doctors explaining treatment plans of recovery or rehabilitation. Within the health professions, narratives are shared and analyzed in the form of case studies, observational notes and focus groups, patient charts, lectures and anatomy books. Traditionally, the narrative has served the broader fields of health science and medicine as a complementary tool to confirm statistical and objective determinations through the research of oral or written communication.
The perspectives of people with disabilities, patients in rehabilitation and subjects of PM&R research are particularly supported with careful study of what people say, why they say it and what it means. Like many populations whose complex lives are not fully captured by records, numbers or questionnaires, people in rehabilitation and recovery have experienced something rich and powerful, something not always fully understood objectively or in numbers. Nonetheless, these experiences contribute to our overall well-being. Narrative research of disability and rehabilitation in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation explores this traditional area. We are interested in how narratives can help our patients, clinicians and research scientists, thereby increasing our understanding of individual stories before, during, and after disability and rehabilitation. This area of research expands the scientific knowledge of what people say that may prove useful to their treatment in rehabilitation and physical medicine, including better quality of life.
Three research projects related to narrative research are featured here:
- Telling Lives Project about women with spinal cord injury
- the monograph project, Deep: Real Life with Spinal Cord Injury
- the Narrative Form Index and Matrix, a new instrument that helps to examine personal narratives by people with disabilities and other connections to rehabilitation and recovery.
