Art and Dementia (Guest Blog by Sarah Goldberg)

We are delighted to bring you an inspirational blog by Sarah Goldberg. Sarah is a senior clinical academic nurse working at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust and the University of Nottingham. Her research interests are around the quality of hospital care for older people with dementia and delirium. She has worked with a multidisciplinary team of clinical academics who developed and evaluated a specialist medical and mental health unit which aimed to provide best practice dementia care for confused older patients in the hospital.   http://www.bmj.com/content/347/bmj.f4132. She is currently developing the role of Advanced Nurse Practitioner for frail older people in the hospital.

In the hospital we tend to value services that provide outcomes which are easy to measure: length of stay; mortality; readmission. These are all important outcomes, but as many hospitalised older people with dementia are reaching the end of their natural life what is important is their present quality of life. Being in hospital for people with dementia can be a frightening and bewildering experience, and it is important for patients to be able to build up relationships and trust. Patients who have established relationships with those who care for them are less likely to exhibit distress. Organised activity sessions can be a way of establishing these relations. I have recently had the pleasure of being the nursing lead on a project generously funded by the Nottingham Hospital Charity, which involved working with artists from The Nottingham Contemporary and The New Arts Exchange to bring art to patients with dementia in the hospital.

For two weeks artists provided daily, two-hour, art sessions on the Medical and Mental Health Unit (a specialist unit which cares for older people with dementia or delirium). The sessions were based on their exhibition: The Sea Inside, and involved discussing art with a group of patients and then encouraging them to experiment artistically using a wide variety of materials. The patients were all very old, had high levels of confusion and most were physical disabled, with the support and encouragement of the artists they were able to actively engage with the art discussion and create their own artwork. One session involved discussing a Turner painting: Sunrise with Sea Monsters, being read a poem and then using water colours to create their own sea paintings. The discussions brought back vivid memories for the patients, of times they’d spent at the seaside or fishing.

On most hospitals wards there is very little to do and patients can spend long periods of time sat in a chair, just staring into space. This inactivity can lead to deterioration in mental, physical and social skills, and organised activities such as arts and music ensure patients with dementia retain these skills during their hospital stay. Daytime activities also promote night-time sleep which aids recovery, however possibly most importantly of all is how such activities can help in maintaining a person with dementia’s senses of identity and dignity. In hospital patients with dementia, who often lack the communication and social skills to easily form relationships, are particularly vulnerable to losing the dignity which comes from having a sense of identity. The arts can give patients with a dementia an activity to do, through which their identity can shine through: talents and skills, family and friends, and life experiences can all be discussed. The arts sessions I have witnessed as part of this project have excelled at achieving this, and it is a project I am proud to be have been part of.

Contacts sarah.goldberg@nottingham.ac.uk

Twitter @se_Goldberg