Walking Interviews in Health Research
摘要
Incorporating the voices of people living with health conditions, including major mental illness, is crucial for researchers aiming to truly understand their experiences. However, there are challenges and ethical considerations to address to ensure their voices can be heard. People living with enduring mental illness can impact on their ability to engage in spontaneous conversation, often leading them to sit passively during traditional interviews, waiting for guidance on how to respond. To overcome these barriers, alternative data collection methods beyond traditional qualitative interviews are necessary to facilitate dialogue while ensuring the person’s safety. One innovative approach is the use of walking interviews, where the interviewer walks alongside the participant. This method is gaining popularity as it helps overcome some of the challenges associated with traditional interviews. Walking interviews provide valuable insights into the participant’s connections with their community, ability to access their neighborhoods, and their level of mobility, which might not be easily described while sitting in a chair. By walking in a familiar environment, the researcher can better understand the participant’s sense of alienation or connection to their community. Although mobile interviewing is still in its early stages, it offers a unique perspective on how individuals perceive and interact with the spaces and places in their lives and how these have impact on their health. This chapter explores the relevance of walking interviews for health populations and provides an example from a qualitative research project which explored how forensic psychiatric clients transitioned from hospital to the community. It also provides insights into how this novel method can be successfully integrated into qualitative health studies.