An Insider Guide to Arts with Older People
An Insider Guide to Arts with Older People
Thursday 8th September 2011
Solihull Arts Complex
This highly successful event was held in partnership with Solihull MBC and formed the launch of their new project Sustaining the Person Within. 53 people attended including volunteers and residents from the care homes participating in the Solihull Project.
Speakers
Full notes from all the speakers presentations are available to download below.
Sharon Baker, Sandwell Third Age Arts
Sharon spoke about the work of her organisation with people elders across Sandwell. She also outlined some useful pointers when working with older people as suggested by the artists working on STAA’s projects.
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Jane James, ArtsinMind, Wolverhampton Arts and Heritage
Jane spoke about the range of activities taking place in the three galleries and museums across Wolverhampton borough and how objects from their collections are used as reminiscence tools. She also demonstrated rag rug making, another reminiscence aid and popular activity.
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John Cocker, Telford and Wrekin Council
John spoke about the newly started Creativity and Dementia initiative in Telford and their ambition to make the Place Theatre a dementia friendly building. The project aims to address Telford’s particular demographic issues of a larger than usual cohort of older people due to the town’s establishment as a new town in the 1970s and 80s.
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Aimee Green, Jan Gay & Kathryn Pettitt, Sustaining the Person Within, Solihull MBC
Aimee introduced the project that Solihull MBC has recently been awarded funding from Arts Council England and described the long lead up to this exciting initiative. Artists from the project Jan and Kathryn introduced volunteers and participants from some of the care homes they would be working with and demonstrated the types of activity they would be engaging with.
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Question and answer session
The speakers all engaged in a lively discussion following their presentations. Here is a summary of some of the points raised:
♣ Measuring outcomes
Discussion on the difficulty of assessing qualitative outcomes and the important of establishing a baseline at the outset. The Warwick Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (WEMWBS) was suggested as a means of monitoring wellbeing; it can bee downloaded here. Also suggested was the person centred Dementia Care Mapping tool that uses indicators such as how people speak, not just what they say. Visit Website
♣ Dementia as a label
It was suggested that dementia has become a catch all term for working with the elderly, particularly as it attracts funding. The stigma of dementia can be a barrier to working with carers and families particularly as it often means that dementia goes undiagnosed as a result. The need to be aware of the impact of the diagnosis on both the person and their carers was stressed. Dementia is a complex condition and no two people have exactly the same set of symptoms so a person centred approach is important. General issues relating to the elderly can often be overshadowed by dementia.
♣ Working with older people using theatre/drama
Are there barriers to using theatre and drama with older people? Whilst there are theatre companies producing work about and for older people, eg Ladder to the Moon, what scope is there for participatory drama work? Music and dance have particular memory triggers and have been used in work by companies such as Sound It Out or in productions such as Al Bowly’s Croon Manifesto.
♣ Social impact
There was a general feeling that having to “prove” effectiveness and value for money was becoming more and more necessary and difficult. Anecdotal evidence and case studies could be backed up by more qualitative methods such as Social Return On Investment (SROI) assessments or broader social audits using methods such as PQASSO.
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Ten Top Tips
The event concluded with a round of the ten most important things that people would take away from the day:
1. Treat each person as an individual
2. Remember that all people are human and should be treated
with respect
3. Keep people stimulated
4. Use a variety of different artforms
5. Build in reflection time for both practitioner and participant
6. Focus on what people can do rather than on what they can’t
7. You are never too old to learn a new skill
8. Remember to have fun
9. Skill sharing is a two way process
10. Money is not a god so don’t be afraid of it
11. Think positive – thanks to Hilda from Rayner House
Residential Home for this important 11th top tip!
