Dementia and the Art of Caring 1

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Dementia and the art of caring: New opportunities for creative practitioners in the ageing economy

• IRAS ID

  262797

• Contact name

  Maruška Svašek

• Contact email

  m.svasek@qub.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  Queen's University Belfast

• Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier

  1780647, Project Number (UKRI)

• Duration of Study in the UK

  1 years, 1 months, 28 days

• Research summary

  Dementia and the Art of Caring:
  New opportunities for creative practitioners in the ageing economy

  The project explores opportunities for creative activities in the ageing economy in Northern Ireland. Taking an ethnographic approach, it investigates the extent to which creative practices can increase the well-being of patients and argues that a study of joint activities of ‘making’ can lead to new understandings of personhood, sociality and the creative process. It also critically explores how concrete processes of creative practice in the dementia care industry in Northern Ireland expand (or fail to expand) job opportunities and potentially enrichen the life and work experience of creative carers and artists.
  Research questions:
  1. How can a focus on ‘making’ in the dementia care system theorise personhood, sociality and creativity in new ways?
  2. How and why have concrete cases of creative making in care-homes, day-care centres and home care arrangements increased or failed to increase the well-being of people with dementia and what are the potential benefits, challenges and risks?
  3. How, in specific projects, have creative practitioners been able to enrich their creative experiences, raise their artistic profiles, and develop their professional careers?
  4. What opportunities does the dementia care system in Northern Ireland offer to creative carers and professional artists and what are the main challenges?

  The research is interdisciplinary in nature, drawing ideas from anthropology, psychology, health care literature and art theory. The aim is to evaluate the opportunities from the perspective of the creative practitioners, carers and people with dementia in three different settings: care housings, day-care centres and home care arrangements. The research is done in partnership with Age NI and is funded by Arts and Humanities Research Council Northern Bridge Doctoral Training Partnership (AHRC NBDTP) through National Productivity Investment Fund (NPIF).

• REC name

  HSC REC B

• REC reference

  20/NI/0019

• Date of REC Opinion

  6 Mar 2020

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion