In collaboration with Johns Hopkins pediatrician and Berman Institute faculty member Rebecca Seltzer, MD, the iDeas Lab is creating a short film, “‘Feels Like Home’: Lived Experiences of Children with Medical Complexity (CMC) and Their Families,” to immerse viewers in how families with CMC adapt/build their home environment to meet their child and family’s needs.
By sharing these experiences with policymakers, state Medicaid officials, pediatric medical providers, and the general public, the team hopes to increase collaboration with impacted families and generate support for meaningful policy change.
The film will debut April 10 at a statewide gathering of stakeholders. Later phases of the project include an audio documentary intended for broad public audiences that explores how families with CMC experience their home environment, and an interactive website to house the multimedia created and collected through the project.
The project is supported by a JHU Discovery Award, encouraging interdisciplinary faculty teams to work together across the university in addressing multifaceted challenges and pushing the boundaries of understanding.
“This project is an example of how the iDeas Lab can work with faculty from the outset of a project to envision and create outputs that will reach and immerse audiences beyond academia, getting them to think deeply and differently about topics,” said iDeas Lab Director Lauren Arora Hutchinson. “The Lab has a team of creative producers – specialists in audio, video, and digital media who produce podcasts, videos, screenplays, films, and interactive projects – who look forward to creatively engaging with families with lived experiences on this important matter and making sure their unique perspectives are heard and shared.”
