Annual Arts and Activities Programme at Raheen Community Hospital Day Care Centre, Scariff, Co Clare

Description

The Day Care Centre has a reach of the whole of East Clare and each day the hospital mini bus collects groups from different villages and townlands across the region to enable people to come together for the day. As part of their experience at the Centre, they are offered a wide range of creative opportunities and activities. This programme was initiated by local artists in collaboration with the Director of nursing in 2006. Since then it has grown from strength to strength.

The provision of a purpose built, dedicated space which was created thanks to The Hospital Support Group and European Leader funding has allowed us to offer a broad range of opportunities in the Arts and related activities at Raheen Community Hospital and Day Care Centre. The programme offers a fantastic opportunity for the visitors to take part in a diverse array of creative and enjoyable experiences. Over the years since it opened in 2006 we have been developing and strengthening the programme and we know that we offer something very special to our Day Care Centre users.

There have been a really wide variety of experiences on offer, delivered by fully trained professional facilitators in their fields. These include the following:

Classes in music engagement, music sessions and performances with many local musicians, collaborative CD recordings and music therapy sessions (in connection with The University of Limerick’s Music Therapy Department).
A broad range of visual art and craft classes from practising Clare artists, and special ‘one off’ projects with visiting artists from Dublin. These include disciplines such as painting, stained glass work, ceramics, felt making, applied and decorative arts, drawing, art and design, colour and composition, jewellery making, paper making, origami, fabric painting, stitch and knitting and much more.
Intergenerational projects with local primary and secondary schools, Arts Council Touring exhibitions (‘Surface Tension’ and ‘Wise Ways Touring’), contemporary art works on loan from The Collection at The Irish Museum of Modern Art with artist’s workshops as part of IMMA’s National Programme. Numerous annual art projects many which are Intergenerational as part of the local Iniscealtra Arts festival (now The Mountshannon Arts festival).
Dance and movement sessions and performances for example with Cois Ceim, Dublin.
Horticultural projects and visits in connection with Irish Seed Savers Association.
Film making projects for example Fishbowl Youth Group and as part of Clare ‘Visual Voices’ covid arts project. Postal art classes and online art appreciation sessions throughout covid when the centre was closed, as part of Clare Visual Voices Programme.
Visits from the Costume department of The Hunt Museum, and history of art appreciation workshops with facilitators from The National Gallery of Ireland.
Nutrition and Health promotion through practical food preparation workshops with a Naturopathic Nutritionist.
Oral History workshops and recordings, delivered in connection with Cuimhneamh an Chláir the Clare Oral History group.
Intergenerational Puppetry workshops and the creation of personalised Shadow Puppet performances. Day Care Centre participation in the recent ‘Embers’ audio visual exhibition, Ennistymon Courthouse, part of the annual ‘Rekindle Festival’ – Festival of Lost Skills.

Throughout the summer months there are numerous outings provided for our Day Care visitors, to sites and centres throughout the county. These are optional but the uptake is great and enthusiastic and they offer everyone a wide range of new experiences and cultural engagement. Just a small sample of destinations are the following: Coastal towns such as Lehinch, Kilrush and Fanore, Castles and historic sites such as Bunratty, Portumna, Killaloe Cathedral, Environmental centres of interest such as Cloughjordan, Irish Seed Savers, arts and cultural centres and galleries such as Glor and Scariff Library, boat trips on the Shannon, waterside locations and villages such as Mountshannon and Killaloe.

There are in-depth project reviews for all our activities which are included in our annual reports. Extensive photographic records have been kept in digital and printed form.
The Programme receives annual funding from Raheen Hospital Support Group and Clare Arts Office.

Aim of Initiative

Overall, the Arts Programme has been coordinated to give a great variety of stimulating activities and choice to hundreds of Older people from East Clare and we are proud of it’s vitality and broad scope which we feel should be available to everyone later in life. This programme offers opportunities for social engagement, social inclusion, advocacy and empowerment. Our aims are to improve the participants quality of life, help build friendships and confidence, and open new opportunities to engage in a wide range of stimulating activities. It is a priority to offer the participants an open and inclusive welcome, build confidence and it emphasises a strong sense of their continuing value and integration in the wider community. Out programme also helps support the families and carers of all our participants, as it offers valuable input and activities to help in the overall wellbeing of their loved ones.

Who is it aimed at

The programme is aimed at the visiting Day Care attendees, who come from all over East Clare. Many of whom live in rural isolation, and may not get the opportunity to socialise and broaden their life experiences in later life. There is a diverse range of Older people with a wide range of abilities and interests who get a chance to come together at the Day Care Centre and through our varied programme, by working together and sharing their experiences, this helps to build a sense of purpose and inclusivity in their lives.

3 Steps critical to success

1. The full support and inspired leadership of the Nursing Directors and staff at Raheen Community Hospital, particularly the former director Pauline Mc Namara and head of Day Care Anne O’Driscoll who secured funding for the art room and facilities in the early days and encouraged the initial art projects at the centre. This paired with the consistent commitment and ongoing effort of staff across the board over many years to support and grow this programme at Raheen has allowed it to flourish.
2. The initial effort and dedication of local artists and arts festival organisers in the early days to include the older generation in their annual plans, which built a new ethos around opportunities and inclusion. This in turn brought recognition from the Arts Council and Clare Arts Office and other national organisations which then supported the programme, enabling us to offer the best to our participants.
3. The wholehearted and consistent support given from the programme’s inception, by members of the Hospital Support Group, who have always provided an open and encouraging commitment both financially and in person to all our activities. They also provide the mini bus which is crucial to the centre, and helps to broaden our activities out into the community. Their recognition of the importance of what the programme offers has enabled it to become what it is today.

3 Challenges in Planning / Delivery

1. The main challenge we face is of how to access sustained funding. Our programme relies heavily on Clare County Councils Art Office annual funding of €4000. This has to be applied for each year and is not guaranteed. This is subsidised by our annual Christmas fair where we include many of the beautifully created artworks and craft works from our classes.
   There has been a number of additional ‘Once off’ grants or awards for example Arts Council Touring grant for the Wise Ways and Surface Tension exhibitions and workshops , Creative Ireland for the Visual Voices online covid project. From Community Foundation Ireland, and from Age and Opportunity and Clare Adult Education department which have all helped us to deliver some of our most exciting projects. However, each year it is a challenge to balance the aspirations of our creative programme with accessing enough funds to support it. Applying for funding annually takes a lot of time which could be better directed towards the actual delivery of workshops and classes.
2. Finding suitable facilitators with the right experience, abilities and attitude can be hard and keeping them is always a challenge. We have had many dedicated and gifted artists and musicians over the years, but they are often juggling a variety of part time jobs, and sometimes we lose them from our team when they are offered other opportunities for better hours and pay. If there was more funding we might be able to reverse this pattern. Overall we have managed to overcome this, but it feels precarious at times and makes coordination of the programme a real challenge.
3. The early years when we were establishing the Arts Programme it was clear that there was some resistance from Day Care users to engage with the arts, especially with the visual arts.
   The perseverance and creativity that our early project leaders required, and their ability to inspire participation meant that we have been able to gradually overcome this challenge. In the seventeen years that the programme has run, it is rewarding to see greater and more enthusiastic participation, and it is remarkable that now we are often following the lead of our participants, whose confidence and abilities have grown so much. It has taken a lot to get to this point, but slowly the activities we offer have become widely recognised and even expected in our community.

3 Outcomes / Benefits

1. The Arts Programme at Raheen has proven to be both innovative and far reaching in its scope. We feel it has offered something for everyone and has become very well established and recognised both by the Day Care users and also the wider community. There is increasingly more interaction and involvement by the local community which has grown consistently throughout the programmes development. This was always one of our early aims and it is rewarding to see that this is happening as it really benefits the participants, building a sense of inclusion and value in our society.
2. The programme is constantly evolving to reflect the needs of participants which continually change over time. It is particularly noticeable that the projects we offer are increasingly participant led. Their growing confidence, abilities and interests have strengthened so much through the programme, that we feel more and more that our role is to facilitate their aspirations and interests. That growing voice of confidence is a very positive outcome which has come about through the consistency and commitment by all of those involved.
3. There is strong evidence to show that the programme we run has given a greater quality of life for the participants who take part. The feedback and evaluation from participants and their families and staff is extremely positive. We witness and hear so many stories of how much these creative activities mean to people, how much they get from taking part and how grateful they are for having the chance to enjoy so many new, engaging activities.