“Care process into a cash transaction”: medical neoliberalism, Afloat and graphic medicine

ABSTRACT

Medical neoliberalism has precipitated a significant shift away from the patient-centric approach to a profit-driven paradigm that prioritises the interests of corporations and shareholders over the well-being of patients. Consequently, there is a shortage of funding for adult social care resulting in compromised service quality. Taking these cues, the article close-reads some sections of Nigel Baines’s Afloat: A Memoir about Mum, Dementia, and Trying Not to Drown (2019) in order to demonstrate how graphic medicine offers multifaceted critique of the NHS and social care arrangements in the UK through nuanced visualisations. Baines deploys a series of visual metaphors to concretise his challenges in quest of an appropriate care arrangement for his dementia-afflicted mother. In particular, Baines deploys thought-provoking board game metaphors (such as the snake and ladder board) and the Yeatsian symbol of gyre to introspect the fine-grained workings of medical neoliberalism and its impact on social care. The article concludes by discussing how Afloat operates as a critical lens exposing the intricacies emblematic of healthcare environments and the deeply rooted vulnerabilities enmeshed within the system.

KEYWORDS:

• Medical neoliberalism
• care system
• Afloat
• dementia
• graphic medicine

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).