Three organisations who have been pioneering evidence-based arts and health programmes, and who are part of the largest ever study into arts and health, will be coming together to present a free symposium for artists, organisations, researchers, health partners and commissioners with an interest in scaling on Thursday 27th June. (Eventbrite here)
Launched in 2019, SHAPER (Scaling-up Health Arts Programmes: Implementation and Effectiveness Research) is the world’s largest ever study into the impact and scalability of arts interventions on physical and mental health, led by King’s College London in collaboration with UCL, and supported by a £2.5m award from Wellcome. The three arts partners taking part in the study, and leading the symposium, are Breathe Arts Health Research with Breathe Melodies for Mums, English National Ballet with Dance for Parkinson’s – PD-Ballet®, and Rosetta Life with Stroke Odysseys.
We sat down with Rosetta Life to understand the work they’re doing with Stroke Odysseys.
What is Stroke Odysseys, and how does it work?
Stroke Odysseys is a twelve week performance arts programme that was co-designed with South London stroke and brain injury communities. The programme is co-produced with the voluntary sector, the health and social care sectors, the arts sector and the Stroke and Brain Injury communities. It is a devising programme, which means that leadership is devolved to the community who co-create the script and the performance in partnership with a team of professional artists.
Performance making enables people to test out new identities that they can explore after the trauma of a brain injury; it enables people to find a new way of being after trauma. The performance programme also builds community and supports kinship within the community. The movement and singing programmes support people’s voice and movement recovery while performance itself supports improved memory and cognition.
What do participants say about the project?
Our participants say that they get their self-esteem back, that they’re more aware of other people, that they become more aware of their power to overcome things. One participant said, “It has changed my life. Now I am progressing with the other half of my life. Stepping on,” and another said “We benefited from the sessions. They would have been alright on their own, but with the performance, you gain confidence.”
What do healthcare professionals you’ve worked with say about the project?
We’ve had great feedback from healthcare professionals, Kiruba Nagaratnam, Consultant Stroke Physician said, “This is what we need – not to tell people what they cannot do, but what they can do, and that’s how you actually rehabilitate people. Stroke Odysseys really makes a difference to our stroke survivors.” And Tony Rudd CBE, Professor of Stroke Medicine said,“One of the big problems with people who have stroke is that they can develop significant anxiety, particularly around the risk of developing further strokes as well as low self esteem and confidence. There are relatively few interventions that we have for people late after stroke to address some of the psychological complications that arise and it would seem to me that this is potentially an intervention that could be developed and used widely at relatively low cost and potentially great benefits.”
Stroke Odysseys, a project delivered by charity Rosetta Life and initially developed and funded by King’s College London and Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity, will be tested at scale for the first time, led by Professor Nick Ward, Professor of Clinical Neurology and Neurorehabilitation at UCL and Stroke Specialist Consultant Nurse at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, Angela Roots.