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.
Our aim initially was to run different projects that support the staff in Care Homes, Day Care Centres and CommunityHospitals in delivering sustainable creative sessions with their clients. The project was developed following a
countywide survey on activity levels that was sent out to all Cornwall’s care homes and community hospitals for the over 65’s and a
couple of pilot projects in Redannick House and Falmouth Community Hospital (called Clown Care and Deep C Divas)
We found that there was a good understanding of the importance of creativity and activities in general, but that the main barriers were cost, lack of staff confidence, pressures to be seen to be busy (from self and others) and difficulty of coming up with new ideas. We also found that the levels of activity varied tremendously across the county.
We therefore decided to fully fund each project, in return for the care setting providing a dedicated member of staff who had protected time for the project. We also structured the projects so that the care staff were fully involved and supported throughout by both their allocated artist and the sharing and learning sessions.
We also used the sharing and learning sessions to share the evaluations and to provide additional experiences through different workshops
The Projects
We selected a range of care homes (both nursing and residential), day care centres and community hospitals. For each setting we paired up an artist with a dedicated member of staff
who was gradually supported in delivering a programme of creativity tailored to their client's needs. This was over a 4 month period, with the artists attending for 8 x 2 hour sessions. We developed each programme with a strong emphasis on shared learning and support between the artists and staff.
An induction day was held at the start of the project with follow up sharing and learning sessions every 3 months. These all gave protected time for planning and evaluating the individual projects, as well sharing new ideas and learning. We found that this provided an important opportunity for the care staff to feel part of a larger project (and hence less isolated) as well as keeping everyone inspired and motivated.
Each project was fully evaluated by the care staff and artists, all the evaluations were then pulled together by Cornwall Health Research Unit...to view the full evaluation please click
here
.
Each project team also produced a toolkit, which is a simple ‘ how to do this activity guide’, which are avail
able for the care settings to use.
We have used our experience from these projects to develop a stand alone training course in partnership with Truro College. This practical course has been created by artists Caroline Schanche and Noel Perkins and is aimed at developing care staff's own creativity whilst providing the knowledge and skills to enable them to run sustained creative activities for their clients. For more details see the training section.
What actually happened?
To date we have completed projects in 19 care homes (both nursing and residential), 3 community hospitals and 2 day care centres.
The programmes could be divided into the following areas:
o Music and movement, e.g. Tea time to Move- Rosie Allen, Tea Dance with a Difference - Colin Curbishley, The Singing Project - Val Stagg, Singing for Well Being – Val Stagg, Music and movement by the Sea – Lois Taylor, Small dance, Big Dance – Dancing for Everyone – Rachel Lambert, Global Hop and Bop – Rosie Allen.
o Arts and craft based programmes e.g. Discovering Painting – Lis Thomas, Hospital Arts and Crafts – Karen Foss, Here’s one we made earlier – Jo McIntosh, Roll up, Roll Up or Roll Over – Caroline Schanche
o Word based programmes e.g. Storytelling and Play – Rosie Hughes, Creative Writing, Poetry and Reminiscence- Amanda Barnsley, tales by the Sea Paul farmer, Creative words, Victoria Field.
We ran the projects in 2 waves, which enabled us to adapt and improve.
Changes we made
We developed a reading project as an alternative for community hospitals since feedback suggested that an activity that is less demanding on staff time yet still develops the culture of creativity and provides quality time for the patients would be more sustainable. See the READING PROJECT.
We lengthened the projects so that each setting had, in addition, 4 one off visits from different artists, in order to widen their experiences.
We found that although the singing projects were very successful, care staff found them difficult to lead and sustain. We therefore extended one of the singing projects, and using the skills of a local film-maker developed a DVD which aims to provide the support, knowledge, skills and motivation to enable care staff to deliver singing based projects. See SINGING and DANCING for more information.
Evaluation Summary
It is clear that all the projects were successful in achieving their aims at improving the quality of life of the older people. Activities are continuing in all but one of the settings.
On the whole, the music based, ‘party atmosphere’ projects engaged the residents and staff quickly and easily, although sustaining this atmosphere was more difficult. The quieter activities took more time to initially engage the residents but can be more personal, intimate and easier to sustain in the longer term.
Distractions e.g. staff being ‘called away’ undermine and devalue the activity. Protected time for discussion between the artists and activity coordinators to plan and evaluate the sessions was essential to ensuring the activities met the needs of all the clients.
Advertising the weekly activity in advance worked well through posters, newsletters and especially by word of mouth from the staff.
Music accompanying or in advance of the activity added to the general atmosphere and involved clients who didn’t want to ‘join in’ directly.
Running activities in the hub of the setting allowed the curios to accidentally wander through or participate from afar.
Activities were often more valuable if they occured spontaneously without waiting until an allocated time and place. This underlines the importance of a ‘whole staff’ approach to activities. Visible and actual support from the managers and other care staff was vital to ensuring a creative culture developed.
Quotes from participants:
‘It set a fire glowing’.
‘I was surprised I could attempt it at 75’.
‘I feel a sense of belonging’.
‘I’ve gained so much from this. Two years ago I was a cabbage, and sometimes this (her left hand) won’t do anything, but today it’s been joining in and I’ve had a lovely time’
Quotes from
Staff:
‘Miss B was more ‘with it’ and less aggressive between the sessions’.
‘The atmosphere has really changed since the activities started, it’s a lot happier place to work’
‘I am so glad we joined this project as it has given us a different focus on ‘activities’ – one that is so much more interactive with our residents and teaches us so much about the rich and valuable lives they have lived’
‘It has really help clients with dementia socialise and start up friendships’.
Next steps
We have used this model to inform other projects such as the Singing for WellBeing and the FEAST Shall we Dance project, both of which will be running throughout 2009.
The learning and sharing sessions have been opened up so that we can offer ‘something’ to those care settings who contact us for support, following the positive publicity that this work has generated.
We are continuing to run the Creativity in Care Settings course and we are looking to develop a ‘get starting package’, to support care settings in developing their creative activities.
We are planning to start more projects in care settings in the autumn and
will continue to use the positive evaluation to promote and highlight the need for creative activities for older people.
Please contact
jenny@artsforhealthcornwall.org.uk for further information about any of the above.