Developing a Countywide Approach to Music and Movement Activities in Community Day Care, Hospital and Care Home Settings combined with Piloting a Range of other Creative Interventions in Various Settings and Evaluating their Impact.
We had aimed to run a series of projects that supported the staff in Care homes and Community Hospitals in delivering sustainable creative sessions with their clients. The project developed following:- 
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A couple of pilot projects in Redannick House and Falmouth Community Hospital called Clown Care and Deep C Divas.
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A countywide survey on activity levels that was sent out to all Cornwall’s care homes and community hospitals who were for the over 65’s.
The Project
We paired up each of the 12 Care Homes and 3 Community Hospitals with a different artist, who initially lead and then gradually supported the staff in delivering, a programme of creativity tailored to the clients needs. This was over a 4 month period.
We further supported the artists and staff through a series of ongoing Learning and Support Sessions.
We are also providing a training course, see the training section 
The programmes could be divided into the following areas:
o Music and movement, e.g. Tea time to Move, Tea Dance with a Difference, The Singing Project
o Arts and craft based programmes e.g. Discovering Painting, Hospital Arts and Crafts
o Word based programmes e.g. Storytelling and Play, Creative Writing, Poetry and Reminiscence.
Evaluation
It is clear that all the projects were successful in achieving their aims at improving the quality of life of the older people.
On the whole, the music based, ‘party atmosphere’ projects engaged the residents and staff quickly and easily, although sustaining this atmosphere was more difficult, as a pose to the quieter activities, which took more time to engage the residents but have proved easier to sustain in the longer term. Following on from these projects, creative activities are still running in all the care settings involved. All projects demonstrated that residents / patients felt that their lives had been enhanced by the projects.
Quotes
‘It set a fire glowing’.
‘I was surprised I could attempt it at 75’.
‘I feel a sense of belonging’.
‘Miss B was more ‘with it’ and less aggressive between the sessions’.
‘Staff have picked up on the knowledge that an activity can just mean sitting for a few minutes with a resident to chat about each others lives, in that both will feel valued for what they learn about each other, even if only remembered for a few minutes’.
Formal evaluation is currently under way
Toolkits
Each project produced a toolkit, which is simply a guide by which other people can recreate the activity without the artists present. The toolkits currently available are Lis Thomas’ - Painting, Amanda White’s – Arts Programme, Lollie Brewer’s - Dream Hat, Val Stagg’s- Singing, Colin Curbishley’s – Tea dance, Rosie Hughes – Memories, Karen Foss’ Arts and Crafts, Rosie Allen’s – Tea Time to Move. We are converting them into a more accessible format, after which we can share them widely. However they are currently available to any of the care settings and staff that have been involved in the project to date. If you would like a copy, please contact us.
Community Hospitals
As a result of the feedback, we are establishing a reading project in each hospital, the primary reasoning for this being that it calls on less of the staff time yet still develops the culture of creativity and offers quality and creativity time with each patient. Please see the reading project page for more information.
Second Phase
Building on the success of the first phase of projects, we have started a second phase of creative activities in eight different Care Homes and Day Care Centres, which include Beech House Saltash; The White House, Bodmin; Tegertha Court, Looe; Eschol House, Portscatho; Crantock Street Day Care Centre, Newquay; Tefula Nursing Home, St Day; Bonaer , Hayle and Hayle Day Care Centre.
Each have a dedicated artist, who will be the main contact and ‘supervisor’. This phase will differ in that all the homes will, in addition, have sessions from the other artists so each home experiences a range of activity as well as building up their own specified activity.
The activities include those that are arts and craft based e.g. Here's one we made earlier - Jo McIntosh and movement and music activities e.g. The Tea Dance with a Difference, Colin Curbishley, Besides the Sea, Lois Taylor, Small Dance, Big Dance - Dancing for Everyone, Rachel Lambert. Some of the activities combine movement with arts and craft e.g. Roll up, Roll up, Roll up or Roll Over , Caroline Schanche and Global Hop and Bop , Rosie Allen. There are also two word based projects Creative words, Victoria Field and one commencing in September with Paul Farmer.
Recent evidence suggests, and we found during the last project, that the singing based activities work extremely well but are hard to sustain, so we are extending the singing aspect and delivering it in a slightly different way. Details of which we will include at a later date.
The networking sessions, now called Sharing and learning have been ‘opened up’ to enable more care settings to access the support provided. The next one is on 27th October and is themed around enabling creativity with people suffering from dementia.