Executive Summary 2019

Executive Summary 5 Following an extensive review of the literature, the research was conducted in two main stages. In stage one, case studies of professional arts organisations were conducted in three cares homes in Essex. In each care home, structured and unstructured observations of the sessions were undertaken and interviews conducted with residents, staff and relatives. The residents were also asked to complete well-being measures and measures of relational bonding at the beginning and end of the programme. Three month follow-up interviews were also conducted with residents and staff participants. Informed by the findings from the above, in stage two the wider care context was explored with a survey sent to all the care homes in Essex to identify the arts and cultural activities provided in individual care homes and the challenges faced by homes in providing such activities. The issues raised in the survey were explored further in interviews in three other care homes for a more in-depth understanding of the longer term impacts of provision of arts and cultural activities in residential care settings. In addition, through the steering group meetings it was evident that the arts organisations found commonalities and differences in their approaches and valued the shared learning experience of meeting together. A focus group was therefore conducted with the organisations to further explore their common practice and how they facilitate creativity and relationship building for and with older people. Overall, the study involved 62 participants: 27 residents, 24 staff members, 2 family members and 9 arts faciltators plus the online views from 27 care homes who completed the survey. Methods