Specialist Nursing Care Provider Empowers Residents Through Creative Art Projects
Exemplar Health Care is encouraging its residents to express their creativity in conjunction with National Arts in Care Homes Day.
To celebrate the annual event, colleagues at the community-based homes have been finding ways to encourage and support their residents to express themselves creatively whilst also encouraging independence.
Residents across Exemplar Health Care homes have been participating in a variety of arts and crafts projects such as painting, drawing, jewellery making, and textile craft-making. “The care team at Exemplar Health Care assist their residents in these endeavours, arts and crafts are particularly great for those with mental health needs, dementia, neurological conditions to name a few.”
Sophia Feurtado, Exemplar Health Care’s Service User Engagement Manager, said: “Creativity and artistic expression can have a huge impact on our residents’ wellbeing and quality of life. Art encourages people to be independent, supports their identity, aids lifelong learning and helps to build friendships.
“Our amazing teams have continued to provide our residents with meaningful and unique experiences. For many people who live in our homes, life can be different, but that doesn’t mean that they should stop doing the things that they enjoy. It means the world to us when we see residents improve their social interactions and sense of inclusion.”
Care assistants are able to assist those residents who are more physically limited to bring their artistic vision to life. The key to this activity is encouraging independence through artistic expression. The importance of working with different textiles is key to the overall experience for some of the residents such as the residents at Longley Park View, a Sheffield-based care home. The residents have enjoyed these arts and crafts with one resident, Jenna, saying: “I love participating in the arts and crafts activities at Longley Park View, looking at the bright colours makes me happy and I like feeling the different textures or materials that we work with.”
