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While healthcare research has examined how social and emotional factors complicate treatment of chronic disease, practitioners often have few resources to assess and address the impact of non-biological influences on patient care. This is especially problematic in patients with Type-I diabetes as the chronic nature of the condition requires the person with the illness to act as their own health-care provider outside of the physicianâs office. It is important for practitioners to understand how patientâs experiences, values, and perceptions shape their health-related activities and how they express their understanding in order to fully engage and assist the person with their own self-care. Drawing from in-depth interviews with people diagnosed with Type-I diabetes, this paper makes two claims. First, drawing from Narrative theory, this paper demonstrates how participants use narrative storytelling as a medium to communicate their holistic understanding of their illness. Second, this paper uses Sensemaking theory to examine how participants iteratively organize social, emotional, environmental, and experiential elements (including narratives) to construct their understanding.

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This paper will discuss therapeutic outlets as a potential and viable treatment option for alleviating symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in military veterans. This paper will also discuss what the pursuit of these treatments looks like. This paper begins with a literature review. It will address the background of veterans, discuss PTSD within the veteran community, and explain the concept of therapeutic outlets, which are activities or engagements that promote mental well-being but are outside of the realm of prescription drugs. Next, this paper will analyze the results of the literature review and discuss the current standard of care for treating PTSD in the veteran community and how it could be improved upon. The results showed that there was a desire by veterans to pursue alternative treatments to replace or supplement prescription medication. The discussion and conclusions sections will address some of the issues facing veterans with mental illness including stigma, adverse side effects from antidepressants, and institutional pressure. I argue that improving upon the current standard of care offered to veterans afflicted with PTSD will reduce comorbidities, homelessness, unemployment rates, and social relationship strife. I also argue that because the military lifestyle is rooted in goal and mission orientation, skills training, and pursuing mental and physical fitness, therapeutic outlets will be desirable and effective among the veteran community. In future endeavors, it will be important to assess how health care providers and mental wellness professionals can safely and effectively incorporate therapeutic outlets into the mental rehabilitation process veterans undergo as they assimilate back into civilian society.

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The Hispanic immigrant population of the United States is rapidly growing. The need for accessing adequate healthcare services has led the healthcare system to utilize community navigators and fotonovelas as tools for dissemination of health knowledge and resources in Hispanic communities. Fotonovelas are health literacy tools that have been adapted and used to increase low health literacy rates and access to care, specifically among low income, monolingual Spanish speaking communities. A literature review was conducted to investigate the purpose of community navigators and the use and distribution of fotonovelas. Organizations such as the Center for Disease Control and the Rural Womenâs Health Project have developed fotonovelas with a âone size fits allâ perspective, while studies utilizing community based participatory research have collaborated with Hispanic community members for the development, drafting, and distribution of fotonovelas tailored to their community. The lack of studies measuring the efficacy and long-term use of fotonovelas suggests the need to further research the efficacy and the reach of fotonovelas after their distribution. As a health literacy tool, fotonovelas must be tailored to the needs of Hispanic communities and used in other diverse mediums such as websites and social media.