Art by Post: Thessa’s story
‘In my experience, people with dementia need something to touch – the internet can be confusing and remote for them.’
Thessa is an activity co-ordinator at a care home in South London where many of the residents struggle with dementia. During the worst of Covid-19 Thessa and her team were incredibly stretched as lockdowns meant they could no longer be supported by volunteers. Our Art by Post project helped Thessa and her team to continue to offer much-needed creative opportunities for the residents during this very challenging time.
This is Thessa’s story of how the Art By Post project helped her and her care colleagues to engage the people they work with creatively at a time when their team was incredibly stretched, as told to Mina Holland.
Thessa
Project Partner, 27, London
‘I’m an Activity Co-ordinator at Nightingale House, a care home in Clapham which serves the Jewish Community. The building is split into different floors that we call households – this is our residents’ home, so we avoid terms like ‘floor’ or ‘unit’ – and most of the people in my household have dementia.
‘I was approached as a delivery partner for Art by Post in 2020 and found the booklets of creative resources really useful at a time when our team was very stretched. During the height of lockdown, there were no volunteers, the care teams were flat out, and activity coordinators couldn’t work together. We all worked in isolation, often on a 1:1 basis with residents, so it was invaluable to have some of the preparation done for me in the form of beautifully-designed handouts. It meant I could focus on delivery.
‘Lots of online resources have been developed for people who need to isolate, but in my experience, people with dementia need something to touch – the internet can be confusing and remote for them. So I like tangible creativity; arts and crafts such as collage-making, often with a theme like expressionist painting, or focussing on a particular artist, either recreating their work or taking inspiration from it.
‘My background is in literature and I love to do creative writing with the residents – things like word chains, when everyone will say one word or a sentence, then we’ll create a poem or a story out of them all. Poetry reading and discussion can be very empowering too – we talk about the flow of words and how they make us feel.'
‘We all need closeness and to be hugged, and as the residents weren't able to have visitors, we had to find a balance between following infection control rules and considering everyone's need for connection.’
‘I’ve worked at Nightingale House for almost 18 months; I started about four weeks before the pandemic kicked off, so I’ve never really worked without a mask or PPE. We felt we had to explain what was happening to our residents – in light terms – because it is difficult for them not to be able to see our whole faces. We all need closeness and to be hugged, and as the residents weren't able to have visitors, we had to find a balance between following infection control rules and considering everyone's need for connection.
‘Nightingale House is a special place. We place a lot of emphasis on intergenerational shared experience and have a nursery on site. We hold groups with babies, toddlers and our elderly residents, singing songs, lighting candles, doing blessings for Havdalah on Mondays, marking the end of Shabbat, and to welcome it on Fridays, sharing the challah bread and drinking grape juice together.
‘Creativity is also a big thing here – we have a dedicated hub for it with resident artists, two kilns and an in-house ceramicist, Emily. Every year, we do something to mark September’s National Day of Arts in Care Homes, and in 2020 Emily came up with our project for it: we hung a big canvas from the ceiling and shot paint at it with water pistols, letting out our frustration at the virus. We called it ‘Enough Is Enough’ and it was very therapeutic. This year, I’m collaborating with Southbank Centre on a bespoke Art By Post booklet for the care home community.'
‘We hung a big canvas from the ceiling and shot paint at it with water pistols, letting out our frustration at the virus. We called it ‘Enough Is Enough’. It was very therapeutic.’
‘To bring the care and activities teams together, we tried to produce a resource that's easy for any staff member to use, with whatever resources and time they have available. We wanted something that isn’t too lofty or artsy, something accessible. The booklets contain prompts for discussion and simple ways to help encourage connection – things like printing leaves or flowers onto clay, shadow puppetry, and hand massages. I always think it’s nice for the resident to be able to take care of their carer for a moment – a lot of them have big families, and miss having the purpose that parenthood gave them.
‘My own grandmother died last year – she had dementia and Covid-19 – and this has both intensified, and given me extra perspective on, my work, and vice versa. I know first hand how difficult it can be for the relatives of people with dementia; they can get angry, frustrated, form connections with their carers and sometimes feel ambivalent about their family. This job means I am actively doing something to help people with dementia, and I’ve valued the insight it’s given me into my grandmother’s experience.’
An exhibition of selected works submitted as part of Art By Post, debuted at the Southbank Centre in September and is now on a UK tour. It is currently at De Montfort Leicester University until 19 February.
Thessa was talking to Mina Holland. Deputy Editor of Guardian Feast, Holland writes about food, lifestyle and culture and is the author of The Edible Atlas, and Mamma: Reflections on the Food That Makes Us.
Nightingale Hammerson is an Art by Post delivery partner.
