Updates and New Stuff
Noteworthy announcements on what I’ve been doing lately.
New Publication:
Creating and Validating a Relational Illness Identity Scale
Hot off the (online) press: I’m excited to announce my solo-authored piece has been published in the Western Journal of Communication. This piece (part of my Ph.D. dissertation) introduced a new, 5-item quantitative scale to measure relational illness identity, or how loved ones change a relationship to accommodate someone’s illness- or disability-related challenges, successes, and changes. The hope is that researchers will continue testing and evolving the scale, and that healthcare providers and patients will use it to better understand and navigate chronic illness. Want to read it? Sure! Click here.
Check out a free recording:
"Building Trust in Public Health: Addressing Misinformation"
On Feb. 5, I was invited to present my research and expertise on health-related mis-, mal- and disinformation to Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services and friends. You can watch the FREE recording of this 90-minute session by clicking the button below.
I am super excited to be included in Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s newest book, “It Doesn’t Have to Hurt.”
I was interviewed about my research on illness identity, or how a chronic illness or disability changes your sense of self, as well as how it influences the way others see you (and what they expect from the relationship).
Appearing in mass market books like this is one way to get empirical research into the hands of people who need it. More than 20% of American adults deal with ongoing pain that influences their daily life — I’m proud to play a small role in helping them acknowledge their situation, manage their symptoms, and thrive in the face of chronic pain.
Through the Center for Health Communication at UT-Austin, I created a FREE online training module for the Texas Epidemic Public Health Institute about health misinformation: what it is, why it’s tempting to believe, and how to talk with people who might buy into it.