ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the value of drawing to the health care, health and well-being of adults. The approach here repositions “drawing” as mark-making, an accessible process that promotes visual thinking. This includes the process of drawing and the products of drawing. The chapter challenges the cultural stereotypes: that drawing refers to an accurate replication (or rendering) and the culturally conditioned belief that people “can’t draw.” Both objective drawing and subjective drawing are used in health contexts. Objective drawings are commonplace in health professional practice but may not be acknowledged as drawing. Examples include graphs, pain drawings, and explanatory drawings. Another form are the more expressive drawings, subjective drawings, which involve intuitive drawn marks. The case presents a Drawing Programme where health professional students and people over 60 came together to use drawing to think about their future aging. They created, discussed, and reflected upon their individual subjective drawings in a group setting. One activity, The Landscape of Life, which is a timeline, is detailed with suggestions for adaptations. People can be anxious when asked to draw, and techniques to help people facilitate drawing are considered. Drawing is a cheap, versatile and accessible process with wide possibilities in health practice.
