Co-designing an educational animation with a remote First Nations community

Hendra virus is an emerging infectious disease that can occur in horses. It naturally occurs in flying foxes and can be transmitted to horses when a horse eats or drinks food or water that has been contaminated by flying fox secretions. Once a horse is infected it then becomes possible for the virus to infect humans. Within horses, once infected it has always been fatal. In humans there has been four deaths from seven infections. Due to this, the Environmental Health Workers (EHWs) of Yarrabah in Far North Queensland are concerned with the risks because horse owners allow their horses to roam freely within the community. To address their concerns a multi-disciplinary team was formed with the objective of creating an educational animation for the community that would raise awareness of Hendra virus, how it is transmitted, how to prevent the spread of the virus and the importance of contacting someone if you become aware of a sick horse.
While researching how to effectively co-design animal health communication it became evident that there has not been much research conducted in this area. I also researched how co-design had been used within human health to help identify key features that I believe are vital for successful co-design projects. After conducting a scoping review in
co-design used in animal health communications, it was demonstrated that this has only been researched in a limited capacity. Due to this, there is a need for further development and implementation of co-design frameworks in this area.

This research that I conducted, my previous qualifications from a Bachelor in Animation and Visual effects, and the knowledge provided from the multi-disciplinary team were then combined to co-design the educational animation with the EHWs of Yarrabah that can be used throughout the community, as well as other Northern Queensland communities.
The framework I have created while completing this educational animation can be used for further co-designed projects. However, further research is needed into the field of co-design in animal health care communication to help demonstrate the validity of this method in creating impactful outcomes.

The presenter would like to acknowledge the contribution, to this study, of his honors supervisors Victoria Brookes, Chrish Degeling, Eleanor Gates-Stuart, Andrew Hagan, and Jane Quinn.