read ppy Chri stm as a H to all o ur e rs and a
d v e r ti s e r s
no.243 • £4.75 incorporating
December 2016
The Number One magazine for the care sector
Could art help homes reduce loneliness?
By Olivia Taylor
RESEARCHERS at Anglia Ruskin University will work with Essex County Council to see if performance art can help ease loneliness and improve social relationships in care homes, thanks to a £125,000 grant from the Arts Council. The two-year project will involve three in-depth case studies in care homes as well as a survey of all care homes and day care centres in Essex. Residents will take part in activities such as music, dance and reminiscence arts – a form of memory therapy. The project will examine how these activities provide opportunities for older people to interact with each other and engage with the wider community. It will also examine how the activities influence the caring relationships between older people and those who work in the care homes. According to the Campaign to End Loneliness, lacking social connections can be as harmful to health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. The campaign also estimates that about 10 per cent of the general population aged over 65 is lonely most or all of the time. Despite being in the presence of other residents within care homes,
loneliness is still a problem. According to Age UK, care home residents may not appear to be physically isolated, but their relationship with the people they live with may not be enough to ward off loneliness. The study is being carried out by joint investigators Professor Carol Munn-Giddings and Dr Hilary Bungay of Anglia Ruskin University. Carol said: “Studies have shown that participation in the arts can improve social interaction, and as such could strengthen relationships among older people living in care homes, some of whom may be suffering from loneliness or mental health issues.” Hilary added: “Faced with an ageing population, this is an important project that could improve the wellbeing of some of the most vulnerable members of society.” The research will be carried out in partnership with Essex County Council’s Art Development Unit. Councillor Dick Madden, Essex County Council Cabinet Member for Adults and Children, said: “Finding new ways, through collaborative working, research and art to make living in care more comfortable and enjoyable is a great thing and I’m excited to be working with Anglia Ruskin to bring this to the residents of our county.”
Literary lunch raises over £124,000 for care provider
Orchard Care Homes has won Best Collaborative Arts Project (Performance), in the Patient Experience Class, in the highly coveted national Building Better Healthcare Awards. Praised for its ‘quirky’ nature, the company’s partnership and rollout with the Equal Arts HenPower project won the category that also featured UCLH NHS Foundation Trust. The award recognises collaborative projects that have a measurable positive impact on the patient and staff experience within the healthcare environment. The partnership with creative ageing charity Equal Arts, began as a trial in one home in the north east and is now implemented in the group’s homes across the country.
COMMUNITY supporters came out in full force for leading care home Nightingale Hammerson, raising more than £124,000 at a literary lunch held at Claridge’s. The event, organised by the Literary Lunch committee and chair Linda Payman for Nightingale Hammerson, welcomed more than 230 guests. Helen Simmons, CEO of Nightingale Hammerson, spoke about the innovative work being done to help to keep dementia residents’ memories alive, before introducing guest speaker, author Linda Grant, who has been promoting her new book, The Dark Circle. The book sees teenage Jewish twins from the East End, struggling to get proper treatment in the early days of the NHS, when they contract TB and are swiftly dispatched to a middle class sanatorium in Kent, where they “put a match under the place, bringing bad table manners and vulgarity with them.” Also speaking was Jane Davis, pioneer of the Reader Project, one of the creative therapies available at Nightingale Hammerson, whereby dementia residents listen to poetry in a shared reading technique, proven to stimulate thoughts and memories.