Hearts&Minds
Hearts&Minds was established in 1997 to promote the quality of life of people in hospital and hospice care through the performing arts. It achieves this aim by delivering participative arts-in-health programmes: the Clowndoctors programme for children in hospital and hospice care, and the Elderflowers programme for elderly people with advanced dementia.
Both programmes use clowning and the performing arts as a starting point for communication and an outlet for creativity. The charity currently benefits over 13,000 children, elderly people and family members each year, mostly in an NHS setting. Hearts&Minds delivers ongoing year-round programmes rather than one-off projects.
In our work we have the pleasure and privilege of helping participants to communicate and express themselves through the performing arts: looking beyond the illness of the ladies and gentlemen, the Elderflowers practitioners use the arts to provoke reactions, and to unearth glimpses of the personality that is very much still there. Looking beyond the illnesses of children and young people, the Clowndoctors directly connect with their playfulness and contribute to changing their perception of their situation and environment as well as reinforcing their abilities.
All of our practitioners are fully qualified, experienced performers with clowning and circus skills. These artistic qualities are combined with further training in partnership working and working in a healthcare setting, as well as personal qualities like emotional maturity and sensitivity. Training and artistic development are ongoing, ensuring that our practitioners are always fresh and aware of advancements in children’s healthcare and dementia care. Our programmes do not provide ward entertainment, but instead really focus on the individual.
Participants are referred specifically by healthcare staff, who give the practitioners some background on their interests and abilities as well as their medical condition. This allows the Clowndoctors or Elderflowers to tailor their activities to suit each participant personally. This empowers that individual and allows them to open up emotionally and creatively. The Clowndoctors and Elderflowers draw from a wide artistic repertoire to engage with the people they visit. They use clowning, improvisation, music and rhythm, games and puppetry to encourage creativity and laughter in the participant.
There are a number of important differences between the clowning used with older people and that used with children and young people. The Elderflowers dress in a more old-fashioned and formal way. They use different approaches. For example, slapstick is done more gently so as not to cause distress or alarm, more encouragement is given to participants to talk about their life experiences and use skills that they developed in the past, and participants are given the opportunity to interact with other people around them through group visits. Non-verbal communication is particularly important as word finding and language problems are common in dementia patients.
Our work is about making a connection with the individual and offering them participation, empowerment, access to the arts, development of physical skills and fun communication. The company’s most recent development is Tricky Business, a performing arts project for young people with mental health problems supported by the Scottish Executive’s National Programme for Improving Mental Health and Well-being.
Hearts&Minds currently engages 14 international theatre practitioners to deliver approximately 400 visits per year to 14 healthcare units across Scotland.
For further information please visit our websites at: www.heartsminds.org.uk and www.clowndoctors.org.uk