Community & Health

Health and wellbeing of our Communities

I am so inspired by those who work, help and support the health and well-being of our communities whether that be through medical research, not-for-profit organisations, our on-ground practitioners or those who gather to make a difference. I try to volunteer my creative services where I can to support these amazing communities of health, as I believe we all have a story to tell and through my visual storytelling I hope I can promote these inspiring stories. Below are a range of health and community issues I have drawn out:

International Day of People with Disability
Community Care
Nursing Mental Health
Welcoming Cities
Integrated Care
HealthHack
Superbugs
Aged Care
Lived Experience
Returned and Services League (RSL) (QLD Branch)

International Day of People with Disability

It was an honour to draw attention to and celebrate the International Day of People with Disability at the “Beyond Bayside” event. This event showcased disabled entrepreneurs, speakers and performers and their stories of running their own businesses was extremely inspiring. Thank you so much for the opportunity to “picture” your amazing and inspiring stories. You can see more of this visual story over at https://drsuepillans.com/recording/business-industry/

Community Care

What a great pleasure and privilege to draw out the BIG picture of CentacareCQ’s story of “Why we do what we do!“. I was invited to attend their Leadership Retreat being held in beautiful regional Queensland to hear first hand how the team felt about their recent ‘WHY’ process to help plan for their 2030 vision. As you can see the visual story provided the BIG picture of CentacareCQs community care stories and it was a powerful way of putting their people in the picture, literally! The work of this organisation is amazing and it was one of those experiences I will never forget, as it did result in a few tears whilst drawing due to the authenticity and power of these stories. Thank you for having me along to help “picture” your important stories.

“The work CentacareCQ does is about caring for people, and it can be really difficult for us to use words to express the impact the work has, both on our clients and on our staff. Dr Sue Pillans helped us to put our words and ideas together, to visually represent the many conversations we have had about what we do, how we do it, and most importantly, WHY. Working with Sue was a great experience – she was quickly able to get to know our organisation and the final result is a picture that really shows CentacareCQ at its best”, Carmel Marshall, General Manager, CentacareCQ

Nursing Mental Health

I started the year 2020 by drawing out the “Mental Health Nursing Forum” for the Office of the Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer for Queensland Health . It was a great day of capturing passionate discussions about a very important issue in our nursing sector, and to our community. As noted by the participants “We ALL work in mental health” but “We need to grow our workforce and make mental health an attractive option for graduates”. Thank you for having me along to “Picture your ideas“.

Welcoming Cities

It was a great experience listening to those organisations who help welcome migrants and refugees to Australia through the “Welcoming and inclusive communities” workshop. I was able to ‘draw out’ the ideation workshop held by Welcoming Cities and Monash University to help picture the lessons learned and experiences of Local Councils and State and Federal Governments with migrant settlement. Thank you for having me along to help “picture your ideas”.

Asia-Pacific Conference on Integrated Care

It was inspiring to attend and graphically record the presentations and workshops of the very first Asia-Pacific Conference on Integrated Care (APIC1), focusing on “Inspiring new ideas and stronger partnerships for improving population health”. Topics I pictured ranged from Plenary presentations on engaging and empowering people and communities and child and youth health to workshops on service delivery and co-design and outcomes-based commissioning case studies. It is always a great feeling to be able to listen and draw out such important health ideas and put people and community in the picture. You can see more of how I picture ideas, issues and information with International Organisations.

Mental Health Nursing Forum

What a way to start ‘drawing out’ 2020 by graphically recording the “Mental Health Nursing Forum” for the Office of the Chief Nursing and Midwidfery Officer for Queensland Health. It was a great day of capturing passionate discussions about a very important issue in our nursing sector, and to our community. As noted by the participants “We ALL work in mental health” but “We need to grow our workforce and make mental health an attractive option for graduates”. Thank you for having me along to “Picture your ideas“.

Drawn to HealthHack!

I was privileged to be the Sketchnoter for the 2016 HealthHack in Brisbane. My first ever Hackathon and what a dynamic and innovative group of hackers! HealthHack brings together motivated people from diverse professional and educational backgrounds together to solve important problems in healthcare and medical research. I just love being involved in collaborations that bring different people and their skills and experiences together. I drew the very quick (3-5 minutes) sketchnotes ‘live’ for the pitches, which ranged from fighting superbugs, tracking antibiotic resistant bacteria to helping the deaf enjoy a cinema experience. You can see how I pictured the HealthHack ideas and solutions through the HealthHack Story.

Excited when my sketchnotes end up in Health Conference presentations, thanks for the shout out!

Solutions for Superbugs!

I was the graphic recorder for the Inaugural “Solutions for Drug-Resistant Infections” Conference held in Brisbane. I was there to draw out the Panel discussions and priorities to guide research efforts towards global solutions for drug-resistance research. Conference attendees voted on the top three research priorities which you can see pictured in the visual below.

Aged Care

I had the unique opportunity to draw out the issues and challenges associated with Aged Care by listening to a range of extremely interesting interviews held by Nurse Manager HQ. Each Health Care provider in Aged Care was asked what they thought were the greatest challenges that the Silver Tsunami presented as it descends upon their niche of health care delivery:

Acute Care
Medical Care
Residential Aged Care
Home Care

Although each of the health care service delivery providers held different views there were some very clear and consistent themes that I drew out regarding the impending Silver Tsunami.

Lived Experience

I pictured the discussions of the Queensland Suicide Prevention Health Taskforce hosted by the Health Minister at their Roundtable in Brisbane. I was there to listen to the Lived Experience voices and draw out their stories of courage and strength. A key message I heard was that “Mental Health and Suicide is everyone’s business“.

Community

I was proud to draw out the discussions of the Returned and Services League (RSL) Queensland Branch’s State Congress held in Brisbane. I graphically recorded the Breakout Workshops which focused on “Programs to enhance welfare and increase membership“. As you can see from the visual story and photos the RSL Branch members in Queensland are wanting to remain relevant for current and future veterans and work towards celebrating the next 100 years of the RSL. I was so happy to see that the RSL members were so engaged with the drawing process and their story unfolding before them!