Comic Relief: Graphic Medicine as Care for Caregivers

Community care workers have been stretched to their capacity and exposed to ongoing trauma through their work addressing persistent health disparities in Inland Empire communities. The coronavirus pandemic and gap in Covid-19 mortality for minorities have highlighted the chronic stressors of racial injustice and dispossession that predate the pandemic and explain why these populations have higher comorbidities. While the pandemic has exacerbated ongoing stressors, the map of this crisis of care may show the way to deeper solutions. The premise of this project is that care occurs in a continuum of caretakers who also require care. The proposal seeks to address and complicate the question: who cares for the caregivers? This study will interrogate the benefits of providing a comics-making workshop, combined with trauma education and somatic experiencing, as a set of resiliency tools for care providers working with traumatized populations.

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Key information

Conditions

Mental Wellbeing Behavior Behavioral Symptoms Burnout, Psychological Compassion Fatigue Fatigue Mental Fatigue Occupational Stress Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms Signs and Symptoms Stress, Psychological Wounds and Injuries

Age range

18 year and older

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Observational

Primary location

University of Riverside, California

Riverside, California, 92521, United States

About this study

The investigators will recruit up to 20 care workers from community-based organizations to participate in a series of comics workshops, who may also exhibit their work locally. The team will rigorously assess participants' experiences and changes in their wellbeing over time. This project provides preliminary data and a groundwork for larger investigations of how creating a space where caretakers can come together, learn about trauma healing and resiliency building, and share their post-traumatic growth and struggles with one another, increases both the resiliency of caretakers and the larger community.

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: Yes

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

Inclusion criteria

18 years of age or more, Any care workers in the Inland Empire (Riverside or San Bernardino Counties) will be eligible to participate.

Exclusion criteria

There are no other specific exclusion criteria in terms of age, race, or gender, though we will aim to recruit a diverse sample that reflects the diversity in our community.

Treatment and study plan

Primary outcomes

Skovholt Practitioner Professional Resiliency and Self-Care Inventory

Time frame: 1 art workshop per week for 7 weeks
Skovholt Practitioner Professional Resiliency and Self-Care Inventory (Skovholt, 2010).
- sub-scale professional vitality (range - 8-40)
- sub-scale personal vitality (range - 11-55)
- sub-scale professional stress (range - 9-45)
- sub-scale personal stress. (range - 10-50) While there is no "optimal" score, higher scores on these scales indicate better outcomes or better ability to navigate stress.
ProQOL: Professional Quality of Life

Time frame: 1 workshop per week for 7 weeks
ProQOL: Professional Quality of Life Screening (Stamm, 1997-2008)
- Compassion satisfaction is about the pleasure you derive from being able to do your work well. (avg score = 37)
- Burnout is associated with feelings of hopelessness and difficulties in dealing with work or in doing your job effectively. (avg score = 22)
- Compassion fatigue, also called secondary trauma and related to Vicarious Trauma, is about your work-related, secondary exposure to extremely stressful events.(avg score = 13) Higher scores on the compassion scale are better; lower scores on burnout and compassion indicate better outcomes.

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

University of California, Riverside

Other

Collaborators

National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD)

Registry information

Important dates

Study start: 2023
Primary completion: 2024
Study completion: 2024
First posted: Oct 3, 2025
Registry last updated: Oct 3, 2025

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

Published trials that share one or more normalized conditions with this study.

Completed