Our CIAD Media Team is made up of residents of adult homes in New York City, many with histories of mental illness. We work in a hostile environment with people who are extremely vulnerable; many do not welcome being on camera, either because they fear retaliation, or because they don't want any public exposure. These are the policies we have evolved over the past six years:
* We always defer to the comfort-level of each resident, asking people to do ONLY what they are comfortable doing. We solicit residents' feelings about being videotaped before we go ahead with the shoot, and we try to respect and accommodate any degree of discomfort. If we have any doubt about a person's comfort level, or their understanding of what they are getting into, we either don't shoot them at all, or don't use the footage.
*Our major on-camera roles are filled only by experienced leaders whose inner strength is well-tested, and who are well-connected to outside advocates--and therefore difficult to victimize.
*When we shoot exteriors of adult homes, we shoot from sufficiently far away that no residents or bystanders can be recognized.
*We don't use legal release forms as a carte blanche. We allow participants to change their minds at any point in the process, including after we have published our videos in DVD form or on the web. We accord participants this extra security because we recognize that many adult home residents cycle through different mental states. On one occasion, we re-edited a video to take a resident out of a video.
*Our videos are truly by residents, about residents and for residents. Resident members of CIAD's Policy Committee decide which videos to shoot, perform all on-camera roles, review the rough cuts of the videos, and approve use of the videos.
We are proud of the fact that over the past six years, in producing 20 videos, we have brought great benefit, and not caused any injury, to the residents whose lives we have touched.
Policies developed by media activists working in adult homes
By Coalition of Institutionalized Aged and Disabled (CIAD) on Sep 23 09
Our CIAD Media Team is made up of residents of adult homes in New York City, many with histories of mental illness. We work in a hostile environment with people who are extremely vulnerable; many do not welcome being on camera, either because they fear retaliation, or because they don't want any public exposure. These are the policies we have evolved over the past six years:
* We always defer to the comfort-level of each resident, asking people to do ONLY what they are comfortable doing. We solicit residents' feelings about being videotaped before we go ahead with the shoot, and we try to respect and accommodate any degree of discomfort. If we have any doubt about a person's comfort level, or their understanding of what they are getting into, we either don't shoot them at all, or don't use the footage.
*Our major on-camera roles are filled only by experienced leaders whose inner strength is well-tested, and who are well-connected to outside advocates--and therefore difficult to victimize.
*When we shoot exteriors of adult homes, we shoot from sufficiently far away that no residents or bystanders can be recognized.
*We don't use legal release forms as a carte blanche. We allow participants to change their minds at any point in the process, including after we have published our videos in DVD form or on the web. We accord participants this extra security because we recognize that many adult home residents cycle through different mental states. On one occasion, we re-edited a video to take a resident out of a video.
*Our videos are truly by residents, about residents and for residents. Resident members of CIAD's Policy Committee decide which videos to shoot, perform all on-camera roles, review the rough cuts of the videos, and approve use of the videos.
We are proud of the fact that over the past six years, in producing 20 videos, we have brought great benefit, and not caused any injury, to the residents whose lives we have touched.
Reply