Deconstructing the NHS: Elderly care

This is Summervale Older People's Mental Health "hospital", or all that remains of it. We have conflicting messages: the NHS is constantly driven by efficiency savings to meet the Government targets, at the same time there is concren that the Uk is woefully ill-prepared to cope with the increased number of elderly people in the population, particularly those with dementias and Alzheimers. Meanwhile, what can "Reg" look forward to now? "Care in the Community" which means 3 visits a day from careworkers for 15 minutes.

This watercolour on gessoed mountboard is based on a sketch done on site

winter walking Stokes Bay; cold wind down the Solent

father and 2 sons

The dynamics between the the sons and the father, and between the two brothers in the misnamed "Prodigal Son" story in Luke's Gospel has fascinated me for a long time:

this study done with nib pen and sepia ink;
did the young son really want to be reinstated or was he just being manipulative? did the older son secretly resent his life with the old man?

Perhaps the young son was being realistic:" best give me the money now, Dad; othewrise it will all go on yourcare home fees!"

LEFrancis report: NHS, Staffs

epileptic boy; meditation and drawing

Ink pen and  ink wash on mountboard.

In secure unit for young people with mental ill-health a young woman told me how she liked the passage about the healing of the epipleptic boy as it is narrted in the 3 synoptic gospels. I asked her to visualise the sene, asking her questions as we went along, quickly drawing the image on a large piece of paper, so it began to come to life for her. She coloured it in sing oil pastels. At the end of the session she took the large image away with her.
When I arrived home I drew it with the same haste as I had done with her, so this is a pretty accurate  representation of what we had worked on together.

Rear gunner

Supermarket check out

 

Fine line drawing, based on a number of quick sketches done on our weekly trip to the supermarket.

Unfortunately I splased it with wet ink from another "work in progress"!

The great thing about supermarkets is the opportunity to catch diffrent postures and poses, to say nothing of the interpersonal encounters: don't get that on -line!