Patient education handout: Blood supply to the brain and vascular dementia
Purpose
My grandad Harry was diagnosed with vascular dementia in April 2024. My family is lucky that we have been able to rely on each other in navigating his diagnosis and care, however it has not been easy. When researching options, we came across many patient handouts, but most were dozens, if not hundreds of pages long. It felt hard to know where to even begin.
Dementia can have people feeling confused and out of control. I noticed that my grandad held onto his diagnosis as a way to keep himself grounded and understand what was happening to him.
I wish that I had been able to show my grandad a patient education handout that explained what was happening to him in simple terms that he could refer to outside of the doctor’s office. I created this patient education handout for other people with vascular dementia diagnoses and their loved ones, as a starting point to understanding how this disease can affect a person’s health and behavior.
Audience
Loved ones & patients with vascular dementi
Intended format
patient handout
Tools used
Procreate, Adobe Illustrator
Client
Shelley Wall, University of Toronto
Creation of text
The text was written at a 7th grade reading level using the SMOG readability formula. The content focuses on important topics relevant for someone researching vascular dementia for them or their loved one. It was reviewed twice for relevance and accuracy.
Style Guide
The initial version of the patient handout was developed as part of an ongoing neuroanatomy patient education series. A style guide was developed by all participants, which I adhered to throughout the development of the handout.
Layout considerations
When developing the layout, placeholders illustrations from Family Health Associates and TeachMeAnatomy were used. The layout was revised to emphasize hierarchy of information and images, remove redundancy, and better visualize different types of vascular dementia.
Portrait
The portrait was based on a photo I took of my grandad Harry, and illustrated in Procreate. A painterly style and warm colours were used to convey emotion.
Brain illustrations
Brain illustration references include Family Health Associates, Kenhub, a UBC brain model, a plastic model, as well as Thieme.
Simplicity was prioritized out of consideration of the patient audience. For example, regions of brain blood supply originally included three colour-coded sections, but was simplified to one view and exanded to explain the general brain functions of different brain regions.
Final layout and colour adjustments
Icons were adapted from public domain vectors from svgrepo.com. The original colours were chosen to be cohesive with the series style guide, but as a standalone patient handout I used a warmer palette to create a sense of approachability and warmth.
Interested in working together? Let’s talk about it.
I take on projects big and small. Reach out and let’s talk details.