People living with dementia transform mental health centre with their artwork

People living with dementia transform mental health centre with their artwork
Artwork by people living with dementia and their carers has transformed a refurbished mental health centre on Brewery Road, creating a fresh vibrant space, which offers a new setting for health, well-being, and cognitive stimulation therapies.

As part of a national programme to transform community mental health care, the North London Mental Health Partnership has invested in new clinics in the community to provide localised care to those who need it.

Art therapy is one of the many activities older adults living with early-onset dementia can take part in.

Islington Memory Service worked with the charity Arts 4 Dementia, and local artist Melissa Fry, providing sessions for people with early stage Dementia, to produce artworks inspired by local Islington landmarks.
A team from Barry Morgan Limited, the building company who built the space, donated their time and expertise to install the artwork.

Ian Sherriffs, Head of Service for Ageing and Mental Health in the Camden Division of the North London Mental Health Partnership, said “The space was very white, very bland, very clinical. We wanted to create a different health setting, one that was welcoming, creative and service user led. The collaboration with Arts 4 Dementia and Melissa Fry has achieved this with great success and we now have a unique space for people to receive support with their mental health, assessments for memory concerns, cognitive stimulation therapy groups (to name a few) that can be celebrated.”

"The space now celebrates how you can live well with dementia. If your sense of belonging is diminishing, having a space that reminds you of your community, sense of self, and those around you, is extremely important. This is what we have tried to achieve with this space.

"As part of our Older Adult Clinical Strategy, the provision of flexible and responsive care until end of life is an essential element of the care offered. Within Camden and Islington Memory Services, this is central to everything we do.

“This is a really good example of service user involvement, collaboration with wider external partners, and not just a health project”

Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise sector spotlight: Arts 4 Dementia

As part of our community transformation programme we are working closely with the voluntary sector to provide more joined-up and holistic care for our service users and carers. This month, we caught up with Roberta Mazur, pictured on the right, who is the Arts Manager, at Arts 4 Dementia.

Arts 4 Dementia is a UK charity, working with arts venues to provide training and develop arts programmes to people with early-stage dementia and their carers. Their ethos is empowerment through artistic stimulation.

Roberta said: "This has been the perfect collaboration.. The project is a service-user driven project, in a familiar care setting, using a holistic approach where everyone brings their own expertise to the table to create a powerful and inspiring message and leave a legacy.

"Eric and Jackie are a father and daughter who attended the sessions. They used to walk in Finsbury Park when Jackie was a child, now they walk there again on lunch breaks after Eric’s diagnosis. When creating her print, Jackie wanted to look at Finsbury Park in a new way and create a new memory with her dad, on top of the memories they had before from childhood."

"Following the overwhelming success of this project, we are hoping to do further work with the NHS."

"We want to empower and inspire people to learn something new. This is as much for the carers and the companions as it is for the people with Dementia. We encourage people to come to workshops with their loved ones. It creates something new within their daily routine.”

Click here to find out more about Arts 4 Dementia.