Arts and older people in care

The Imagine programme in Nottingham is one of four nationally to be awarded funding as part of Arts Council England and The Baring Foundation’s Arts and older people in care programme

Key consortium partners The Abbeyfield Society – lead partner Nottingham City Council (Arts and Adult Services) City Arts The University of Nottingham (research and evaluation) Care Home Partners (17 in total): Abbeyfields, Eastgate Care, Nottinghamshire Hospice, Nottingham City Homes and Radford Care Group (day care). Wider Consortium: Open Arts Forum (OAF) – representing all of the main arts venues in Nottingham City University of Nottingham – Mixed Reality Lab – supporting work exploring digital technology

The programme aims to: Introduce arts practice that challenges, engages, stimulates and enables older people in care to have access to a rich culture offer Define a person centred approach to programming with the voice of older people in care who will become co-commissioners/producers of new work, inform our practice, training and research Expand the skills, experience and practice of artists, care providers and volunteers to best develop and respond to opportunities for high quality engagement in art Evaluate outcomes of what is learnt in order to inform and roll out the project to national care providers.

The Imagine programme will consist of artist residencies, commissions and opportunities to see and participate in regular arts activities and events. It will balance actual visits to and from artists with an exploration of live streaming and facilitated ‘virtual’ visits utilising media and technologies.

Programme elements in Year 1:   Armchair Art Gallery   Open Arts Forum – a series of programmes delivered by arts venues in Nottingham City   Nottingham Carnival – creation of a large-scale puppet and a partnership with Men in Sheds (Age UK Notts) to produce elements for the carnival   Digital Arts – ipad Engage   Music commission   Film commission   Mixed Reality Lab – the digital arts will be explored with residents working in partnership with Nottingham University   Live streaming - concerts and recitals will be filmed and livestreamed into care settings   Training

The Imagine programme model The vision uses high quality arts programmes to enrich the lives of older people in care, with the potential to change perceptions about care homes and explore how they might fit better into the community Through consultation, respond to the residents and care staff’s needs and ideas Through consultation, respond to the residents and care staff’s needs and ideas Provide opportunities for residents to have choice and control over their environment and participation in high quality arts and cultural activities Provide opportunities for residents to have choice and control over their environment and participation in high quality arts and cultural activities

Continued … Create an environment that promotes Create an environment that promotes good relationships with family, partners, friends and staff Work alongside care staff valuing their expertise and supporting them to raise aspirations in relation to arts engagement and cultural opportunities for residents Work alongside care staff valuing their expertise and supporting them to raise aspirations in relation to arts engagement and cultural opportunities for residents Provide training and practical support for care staff, families, volunteers and artists in specialist areas such as dementia, non-verbal communication and other health conditions that may impact on how individual’s can access the different strands of the programme Provide training and practical support for care staff, families, volunteers and artists in specialist areas such as dementia, non-verbal communication and other health conditions that may impact on how individual’s can access the different strands of the programme Support older people in care to seek new opportunities to engage with the programme offer, the wider community and the arts to improve cognitive functioning, communication, enjoyment of life, mood, memory and creative thinking Support older people in care to seek new opportunities to engage with the programme offer, the wider community and the arts to improve cognitive functioning, communication, enjoyment of life, mood, memory and creative thinking

Where are we now … Care homes/residents engaged since February 2014:  11 care homes engaged  61 workshops facilitated with 286 residents  79 men engaged with the programme and 207 women

 37 participants from arts venues, artists and care staff have attended training and achieved their Dementia Friends awards  101 likes and around 6,000 reached through our Imagine Facebook Page around 6,000 reached through our Imagine Facebook Page

Baseline Evaluation in Nottingham Care Homes University of Nottingham: Institute of Mental Health, Centre for Dementia Bethany Jones, Tom Dening, Justine Schneider, Victoria Tischler

Method Semi-structured interviews with manager or deputy manager Semi structured interview with activity co- ordinator, where applicable Thematic analysis guided by study areas of enquiry: The role of the activities coordinator Activities in care homes Art awareness in care homes Attitudes towards the arts How care home personnel value the arts Facilitators and barriers

Findings 1.Existing provision 2. Awareness and attitudes 3. Perceived barriers 4. Expectations and experiences of Imagine Arts so far

Barriers Attitudinal Financial Physical

Conclusions Existing provision varies with bias towards crafts and occupational activities ‘Art’ tends to come in from outside the home Staff attitudes towards all these activities are predominantly instrumental Openness towards digital arts Cognitive impairment and apathy are perceived to present challenges Realism about costs of mainstreaming/implementation

Arts and older people in care facebook.com/ImagineartsNottinghamshire The Abbeyfield Society City Arts: Kate Duncan: