December 05, 2009

Iktomi cartoons on GoodHealthTV

Animated series generates diabetes awarenessThe animated series, “Iktomi” chronicles the life of a man diagnosed with diabetes. Viewers follow Iktomi’s journey as he learns how to take better care of himself and is challenged with making the lifestyle changes necessary to effectively manage his disease.

A trickster who’s always trying to fool himself and others, Iktomi, struggles with accepting his health needs and doesn’t want to believe he has to change his bad habits in order to stay healthy. Audiences learn along with Iktomi, valuable lessons about caring for physical, mental and emotional health.

KAT Communications worked with Standing Rock Diabetes on “Iktomi’s Walk With Diabetes” and The Aberdeen Area Indian Health Service on the next four programs in the series: “Mind, Spirit and Emotion;” “Learning About Foot Care;” “Learning About Nutrition;” and “Moving to Stay Healthy.”


Comment:  It's always a good idea to use the popular media to impart information such as good health practices. Comic books, cartoons, videos, video games...whatever works.

This is apparently part one of 15, which would make this an hour-long cartoon. I'm not sure a lot of people will sit still for something that long. If it were me, I'd make it shorter, speed up the pace, and use more humor.

For more on the subject, see Native Videos and Cartoons.

1 comment:

KAT Communications said...

Hi Rob,

Thanks for posting about our Iktomi series! I just wanted to give a little background information about our service to better explain how Iktomi is used.

GoodHealthTV® programming is delivered to hospitals, clinics, schools and community centers. The programming is viewed in waiting rooms where patients normally wait for 30-120 minutes. In that amount of time we air a variety of engaging and entertaining programming that provides viewers with practical tools to improve their health and wellness. The Iktomi series is just one of the programs and is aired in segments less than 3 minutes long, intermixed with other programming. A patient will not view the entire story in one sitting but can easily pick up on it the next time they are at the clinic.

Thanks again Rob, we appreciate any and all feedback on our programming as we strive to raise health literacy rates through culturally competent and entertaining programming.