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Category Archives: Health

Gravy train riding a tidal wave!

Aged Care Gravy Train page

Illustrating an article by researcher Sarah Russell in this weekend’s The Age newspaper. Read the complete article here.

Foodhero at WOMAD!

It was easy to become a Foodhero at WOMAD over the weekend –  by having your Foodhero photo taken. The unisex superhero character was drawn up for Oxfam Australia’s stall promoting their Our Food System is Broken campaign.

Foodhero LR pic

Foodhero picB

Carolyn Cordon’s Living well with MS

Mick, Jane and Me, Living well with MS is a book written by Adelaide poet Carolyn Cordon. Mick and Jane are the names of her sticks.  Carolyn writes:

When I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS)/… I wanted to have a book like the one I’ve written here -/a book with the feelings, medicines, processes/ emotions and misunderstandings/ I had to work through/ to find a place of peace within.

Carolyn also created a blog to go with her memoir – click here.

For the book she wanted an illustration at the start of each chapter. Because the book has so much to say:  Carolyn’s  story,  thoughts, ideas, and information, I ended up with many more illustrations than was needed.

Below are a few of the pictures.  Together they do tell some of Carolyn’s story.

MS page 1MS page 2MS page 3

Fine print…

The focus of this month’s issue of New Internationalist is fracking. As NI Co-operative member Dinyar Godrej writes in his web-only extra: ‘The even greater madness is to put the urgency of doing something about climate change on the back burner (in a manner of speaking) just because fracking may offer a few more years’ worth of fossil fuel’.

There is plenty more in the magazine – and on the website, covering a wide range of issues. Here is my Scratchy Lines cartoon from page 8:

Free Trade LR pic

The Continence Gang

The Continence Gang – published in 2001 – was a comic book written by Esther Quintal for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Esther wrote that ‘Continence is something my people do not understand … It is clear that incontinence is a problem and causes shame for many’. It was a challenge getting the ideas and messages into pictures, but  a lot of fun as  Esther encouraged me not to hold back.

Last week Marjory Kobold, one of the coordinators of the project phoned to say that Esther had died.

Esther’s book was one of the most popularly requested Government publications. Here is the cover and opening story:

Continence Gang cover

Continence page1

Taking the Pulse!

Metro North Brisbane Medicare Local‘s  Taking the Pulse conference: bringing it all together on April 20th did bring it all together. After eight forums across the region what local communities regarded as the important primary health care issues for the region were presented. A wide range of local initiatives tackling many of these issues were outlined in concurrent sessions, and by over 20 exhibitors.

That Health is at some sort of crossroads is indicated by the last two plenary sessions: “Whatever happened to the Health Reform?’ and ‘Keeping it all together’.

As Conference Cartoonist it was my brief to capture the messages, and the feeling, throughout the day.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Managing?

The Australian Government plans to introduce an income management card – called the Basics Card – to a number of low-income areas. The intervention in the Northern Territory in 2007  included income management  imposed on Aboriginal communities. Income management quarantines a proportion of welfare recipients’ benefits, through a card, which can only be spent on essentials.

This cartoon illustrates some of the concerns about the scheme, as presented in an article on the Pro Bono website news page. To read the article click here.

Cost of living…

A poll of  over 1700 clients by The Salvation Army showed that more than half  have gone without meals to pay for other basic necessities.  This is in Australia, a wealthy country…

In the System

‘It’s in the system’ is meant to be reassuring – maybe it’s a cheque that’s not arrived, a form has got lost… but what if it is a person?

Click here to see other cartoons on the Pro Bono website.

Young and old….

The weekly cartoon on the Pro Bono website is usually inspired by posts on their news page.

Pro Bono is Australia’s leading online news service for the Not for Profit sector.

This week two articles stood out: one on homelessness, the other on the aged care sector. I did two cartoons – below –  click here to see which one was published.