Discover How the ‘Manager’s Guide to Arts in Care Homes’ is Improving Care Quality and Well-being!
Here at Duffy & Shaw, we wanted to finish blogging for 2023 on a high, and what better way than by exploring the new ‘Manager’s Guide to Arts in Care Homes’.
The guide, aimed at care home managers but also valid for other services and staff groups, has been developed by NAPA (National Activity Providers Association).
Here at Duffy & Shaw, we were delighted to read this new guide. Not only does it show you how a focus on engaging with the arts promotes mental and emotional well-being, but it also supports you in understanding how to use this as evidence of your high-quality services to CQC!
Engaging with arts in all its forms, including music, can reduce stress, and studies show it can even relieve pain. It can support people who do not verbally communicate their experiences and feelings. In ‘outstanding’ services, we have seen how a person-centred, vibrant, and activity-based environment supports better outcomes and the individual’s experience by meeting emotional, psychological and cultural aspects of care and support.
But what are ‘The Arts’?
The Arts are things we do daily with the people we support; it’s all about supporting their creative expression, meeting their sensory needs, and offering creative activities planned around people’s differing abilities, interests, cultures and likes and dislikes. It might include:
- Visual arts (such as drawing, painting and sculpture),
- Performance-based art (such as music, drama, and dance),
- Art therapy
- Reading or writing poetry,
- Watching performances or films,
- Listening to music,
- Everyday creative activities such as cooking, crafts, sewing and calligraphy,
- Using nature as a stimulus for arts activities can encourage more use of gardens and outside spaces within care homes. As well as encouraging people to go outside, bringing in natural objects can be a great starting point for creative discussions and art activities.
What Is a Creative Community?
Creative communities start with management direction. It includes providing explicit and implicit permission for staff to develop an arts culture and lead by example. This can include supporting staff to try new things and not worrying about mistakes; it’s all learning. Managers who get involved and have a curious and playful approach to arts and creativity provide implicit permission for all staff to be more creative and try new things. Strong, creative managers trust and value their staff and encourage them to ‘think outside of the box.’ In turn, staff feel supported and listened to as do the people you support. The guide says, “Art thrives on ‘mistakes’ and ‘accidents’, and there is no right or wrong way to be creative.”
Involving People and Your Local Community
You have vast resources within your service regarding people, staff, family members and volunteers who will have creative skills you may not know about. The first step in starting your creative community is identifying the interests and skills of people already invested in your service. The next step is to think about your wider community. Who can you connect with to bring new ideas or a different energy into your home? Can you form new connections with:
- Nurseries,
- Schools and colleges,
- Local museums,
- Arts centres,
- Art galleries,
- Arts groups and associations,
- Artists
Thinking about CQC
The guide helps you to think about not only arts in your home but also what you can do to make the links between what you do and what CQC needs in terms of evidence. It guides you on areas to consider and makes links between your creative community and the new quality statements whilst also including suggestions on how you can:
- Find arts initiatives,
- Document your work,
- Demonstrate your impact on people’s experiences and outcomes,
- Use an evidence-based approach,
- Address risk management,
- Demonstrate your continuous drive for improvement.
The guide has many ideas, resources, case studies and website links, which you can use to start (or continue) your creative community journey. We hope this blog has inspired you to read the guide, and here at Duffy & Shaw, we wish you success in developing your arts offer, helping people learn new skills, express their feelings, and connect with you and their local community.