Pathways of Hope: Capturing Narratives of Substance Dependence and Recovery to Co-create a Public Information Comic

Current teaching and training about substance dependence has little emphasis on community-based recovery groups and few opportunities to hear from those with lived experience, despite evidence of the positive impact this has on learners. Dr Nic Dickson, Dr Lynsay Crawford and Professor Andrea Williamson from the University of Glasgow’s School of Health and Wellbeing worked in partnership with Humanising Healthcare and the recovery community to produce an innovate co-created Public Information Comic (PIC) capturing their lived experience of substance dependence and recovery: Pathways of Hope. This workshop will explore the co-creation of visual narratives that represent the lived experience of the recovery community. Participants will gain insight into the role of graphic medicine as an educational tool, learn to facilitate conversations that empower marginalised voices, and develop skills to utilise comic-based methodologies for addressing healthcare challenges in this community. Participants will take part in a drawing session as an experiential learning activity to highlight drawing and storytelling as a powerful educational activity. This will foster greater understanding of the vulnerabilities and ethical issues related to Lived Experience research and teaching.