About the project
All Is Not Well is a space for experimental comic strips that explore experiences of care, from the perspective of the caregiver and of the person who receives care.
Giving care is essential to a functional, healthy, and ethical society. Far too often caregivers are forgotten about, made invisible, and overlooked, whether they are de facto stay-at-home carers, or the underpaid and undervalued caregivers who work for our institutions and social services. Care in the community and supported living saw the end of dehumanising institutions but it also drove care underground with a huge rise in private sector provision.
All Is Not Well – Comics About Care, has been realised in conjunction with Cardiff University and is being funded by ESRC Impact Acceleration. It is run by Jonathan Clode, a comics writer and former care manager with an interest in stories that deal with social issues, history, memory and biography. Alongside Jonathan is Ryan Prout, lecturer at the Cardiff University School of Modern Languages. Ryan has worked on European comics that have raised awareness of autism and Alzheimer’s, and came to the project after researching representations of disability in comics and finding that this was an area that needed exploration.
We are looking for contributing writers and artists and for material designed especially for the project. The style of the strip is completely up to individual artists/writers; the only proviso is that the story should relate either to personal experience or be informed by someone with knowledge of life in care work. Ideally, these stories will be around 4-8 pages in length and will ultimately be collected into a print publication, at which time the proceeds will go to the creators. Any information shared will be done so in strictest confidence.
This project is driven by the realities of day to day care work and we very much want to hear from people who have a story to tell though they may not be writers or artists.
Why do this? Sooner or later we all need to give or receive care:
- Three in five people in the UK will be carers at some point in their lives.
- By 2030, the number of carers will increase by 3.4 million (around 60%).
- There are up to 700 000 young carers in the UK: they are twice as likely as their peers to be NEETs
(Not in education, employment or training) - 68.8% of older carers say that being a carer has an adverse effect on their mental health.
- The strain of being a carer produces increased likelihood of stroke and mental health problems.
- Care work is one of the lowest paid jobs in the UK. Experienced staff earn little more than new employees
- Few employees stay in the care profession for more than 10 years.
- Employee turnover sits at around 25% but is even higher in the private sector.
- The provision of community health care by private sector organisations is rising, while funding continues to shrink.
If you have a story you’d like to share or are interested in the project, please contact Jonathan and Ryan by email.