The Community Arts Partnership, the organisation at the forefront of the promotion, development and delivery of community arts practice in Northern Ireland, unveiled a new report last week, “Community Arts and Dementia” at the Belfast Trust’s supported housing facility, Hemsworth Court.

The report, funded by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, emerged from evaluative processes applied to community arts projects, facilitated by the Community Arts Partnership, working with older people experiencing Dementia between 2010 and 2013.The report incorporated information from professionals working in both community arts and the health profession to add a wider context for the work.

Primarily the report suggests that a consistent community arts approach, offering opportunities for participants experiencing Dementia to make decisions about their creative lives as autonomously as possible, provides a pathway for those with Dementia to maintain connectivity to the world around them as well as stimulating “cognitive, physical, psychosocial and spiritual well-being.”

Given the increase in the number of people experiencing Dementia, government reports suggest upwards of 60,000 people will be diagnosed with Dementia by 2051, this report will be of benefit to organisations and individuals, community and community arts organisations, arts professionals, healthcare providers and anyone seeking to support their work with qualitative as well as quantitative evidence taken from work in the field.

http://www.artscouncil-ni.org/news/community-arts-partnership-launches-community-arts-and-dementia