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- Volume 3, Issue 2, 2012
Journal of Applied Arts & Health - Volume 3, Issue 2, 2012
Volume 3, Issue 2, 2012
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Dancing to the music of time: An experiential learning exercise in dementia care
More LessThis article presents findings from an experiential learning exercise in which 34 care practitioners enrolled on a part-time B.Sc. programme in Dementia Studies were asked to identify their own favourite music, and then to investigate the musical preferences of one of their clients with dementia. For both groups, practitioners and clients, three dominant themes influencing choice of music emerged: loving relationships; significant life events and places, and a sense of physical enjoyment. This exercise enabled the group of practitioners involved to identify commonalities between their own musical memories and those of their clients with dementia. They also uncovered considerable amount of new information about their client’s life histories. On this basis they were able to make a number of new recommendations for improving care practice.
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Pleasure, provocation and value in hospital art: The evaluation of the University College London Hospitals arts programme
Authors: Lynn Froggett and Robert LittleThis article discusses a psychosocial study of a hospital arts programme informed by the principles of ‘realistic evaluation’, which assumes that individuals’ responses to artworks reflect their circumstances and are influenced by social context. The methodology combined experience-distant and experience-near methods – an observation scale and elicitation of views and perceptions. The findings are discussed in relation to a model of public value, widely debated in the cultural sector, that distinguishes intrinsic, institutional and instrumental dimensions. It is argued that intrinsic value enables institutional value to be fully realized in that it enables people to make personally meaningful use of artworks that at the same time create a sense of connection to the institution as a community. However, since intrinsically good art may also challenge some people, this raises the question of what kind of provocation is acceptable in health-care contexts.
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Hymns and mental health: A survey of church attendees
Authors: Michael J. Lowis, Janet Eldred, Albert J. Jewell and Michael I. JacksonA survey entitled ‘What hymns mean to you’ was conducted on 394 men and women, mostly recruited through religious organizations. Participants completed details on the extent that hymns can help overcome feeling down or depressed, and the reasons why. They also named up to three hymns that can have this effect. Analysis of the data revealed a high level of benefit from hymns, and a significant relationship between this and level of self-rated religiosity. Women reported significantly higher benefit than did men. Most cited hymns sung to tunes in major (as opposed to minor) mode, and approximately 66 per cent were in quadruple (as opposed to triple) time. Reasons for why the hymns had a positive effect on the participants’ mental health were offered, and these were supplemented by qualitative comments from the participants themselves. These findings have the potential to inform those responsible for compiling and conducting religious services in churches, care homes and other venues, on which hymns have he potential to help people by raising their spirits, and why.
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Photos to ‘show the world what we’re going through’: Women use images to talk about living with HIV/AIDS
Authors: Michelle Teti, Jenne Massie, Nancy Cheak-Zamora and Diane BinsonThe growing number of women living with HIV/AIDS (WLH/A) underscores the importance of effective prevention programmes to help women promote their own health and protect their partners from HIV transmission. We elicited WLH/A perspectives about their health promotion and prevention programme needs in a photovoice project called Sharing Stories. Photovoice is a qualitative, participatory research method that uses photography and critical group dialogue to help people identify their health priorities and inform practice. Ten WLH/A participated in the project and took pictures, engaged in group discussions, and planned and held a public photo exhibit. We digitally recorded and transcribed group discussion sessions and performed a content analysis to identify key themes in the data. Women’s photos and discussions centred on the importance of: (1) support networks; (2) living healthily with HIV/AIDS; (3) daily stressors and socio-structural challenges, and; (4) growth and transformation. Our findings suggest that prevention and health programmes for WLH/A need to focus holistically on women’s physical, mental and social health; help women identify sources of social and emotional support; recognize WLH/A as healthy and capable; and help create healthy structural environments for WLH/A, like appropriate housing. Photovoice was a powerful strategy to motivate meaningful discussions as well as action among WLH/A.
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Benefits experienced by older people in group music-making activities
Authors: Maria Varvarigou, Andrea Creech, Susan Hallam and Hilary McQueenThis article focuses on the reported benefits of participation in musical activi¬ties identified by people over the age of 50, who participated in the Music for Life Project (MFLP). The participants engaged in weekly musical activities offered in three locations; two centres in London and one in northern England. Their responses were collected through individual interviews and through written answers to open questions on two questionnaires that were filled in at the beginning of the project (October 2009) and again approximately nine months later. Thematical analysis of participant feedback showed that improvements in quality of life were attributed to active engagement with music and a wide range of cognitive, social, emotional and physical benefits were reported. This article offers an insight into what participants said about improved health, social interactions, emotional support and learning that occurred as a result of active involvement in music and proposes ways through which these reported benefits may be maximized.
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The role of performance in healing: A personal reflective journey
More LessPerformance can be used as a means of communication in performance studies and as a treatment medium in drama therapy. This article shows autoethnographic performance could heal the personal pain and cultural wound, and could balance personal and professional, English and Chinese, and mind and body. In this journey, I performed both roles of myself and Laozi, the Chinese philosopher and the father of Taoism, in dialogue. In this article, the readers can watch and hear the authentic and therapeutic impact of the autoethnographic performances embodied by myself as a scholar in communication and performance studies in the academic and pedagogical setting.
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Breaking frames: Mark Storor’s For the Best – A case study about an artist in residence
By Aylwyn WalshThis article analyses For the Best, referring to a research and development phase with chronically ill patients at both Evelina Children’s Hospital and the Royal Liverpool Hospitals and professional performances at the Unicorn Theatre and Gostin’s Building. The case study makes an argument for the careful nurturing of multiple partnerships, and draws on the findings of the external evaluation of the project. As such, it offers a specific overview of a performance emerging through a residential model, drawing out good practice that was identified by clinicians, partners and academics at symposia organized to coincide with the events. Such a model could be of value to other practitioners seeking to generate partnerships within health settings. However, the value of the residency itself is returned to as being of primary importance in the project model.
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REVIEWS
Authors: Martin Zavala and Carine AshtonTHE UNCERTAIN AND MULTIPLE WORLD OF EXPRESSIVE ARTS THERAPY – REFLECTIONS AFTER THE IEATA CONFERENCE IN PERU: ‘LIVING WITH UNCERTAINTY: MULTIPLICITY AS A HEALING PATHWAY THROUGH EEPRESSIVE ARTS’, LIMA, PERU10–14 AUGUST2011
COLOUR MY WELL-BEING: APPLIED ARTS AND HEALTH CONFERENCE, THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTHAMPTON, 19–20: AN INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE EXPLORING COLOUR WITHIN APPLIED ARTS, HEALTH AND WELL-BEING
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