Graphic Medicine and Region 7: What’s New? 2023 Edition

Posted by Sarah Levin-Lederer on November 20th, 2023 Posted in: Communities of Interest, Graphic Medicine
Tags: graphic medicine

---

This month, R7 was excited to contribute to the “Health Information @ The Library” series for Public Libraries Online with “Graphic Medicine and Public Libraries: A Tool for Health Literacy.” Which makes it a great time to do a quick update on R7 and graphic medicine.

Here’s What’s New

This fall, we introduced two new Graphic Medicine Book Club Kits.

Topic: Alzheimer’s Disease

Title: Tangles: A Story About Alzheimer’s, My Mother, and Me by Sarah Leavitt (2010)

Description:  From the publisher: “Sarah Leavitt reveals how Alzheimer’s disease transformed her mother, Midge, and her family forever. In spare black-and- white drawings and clear, candid prose, Sarah shares her family’s journey through a harrowing range of emotions—shock, denial, hope, anger, frustration—all the while learning to cope, and managing to find moments of happiness.”

Alzheimer’s Disease Discussion Guide-Discussion guide created by Raeshelle Cooke as part of the 2022 University of Kentucky Alternative Spring Break program.

Topic: Migrant Health

Title: The Most Costly Journey: Stories of Migrant Farmworkers in Vermont Drawn by New England Cartoonists Edited by Marek Bennett, Andy Kolovos, Teresa Mares and Julia Grand Doucet (2021)

Description: “This non-fiction comics anthology presents stories of survival and healing told by Latin American migrant farmworkers in Vermont, and drawn by New England cartoonists as part of the El Viaje Más Caro Project…aimed at addressing the overlooked mental health needs of these vulnerable immigrants…this collected edition brings the lives and voices–as well as the challenges and hardships–of these workers to an English-language audience, granting insight into the experiences and lives of the people vital to producing the food we eat.”

Migrant Health Graphic Medicine Discussion Guide

To make room for these two new kits (and a third on the way by the end of the year), we’ve retired the AIDS kit featuring Pedro and Me: Friendship, Loss, and What I Learned by Judd Winick. The AIDS discussion guide is still available to use on the updated R7 Graphic Medicine page.

And what might be new to you

If you’re feeling like you missed some background information with the above update, here’s some more information about graphic medicine resources and services that R7 has to offer.

• R7 offers Graphic Medicine Book Club Kits on 13 different health topics that lend for eight weeks, include six copies of a book, discussion guide and supporting health information. Kits are completely free to organizations in R7.
• R7 supports a Graphic Medicine Community of Interest that provides peer to peer collaboration for graphic medicine projects in organizations across the region.
• Join the graphic medicine listserv to get announcements about classes, conferences, research and more from partners around the world.
• The NLM traveling exhibition, Graphic Medicine: Ill-Conceived and Well-Drawn! is being hosted by R7 partners in January at Harvard Medical School-Countway Library and in March at the Nevins Library in Methuen, MA.