Active Care Homes through the Arts (working title for project)

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Active Care Homes through the Arts is a project targeted at increasing activity levels in residents in care homes through inspiring and engaging digital arts content along with support for the staff to motivate and encourage residents to move more.This project involves a multi-skilled team drawn from across a number of organisations, including Dance in Devon, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Villages in Action, Wellmoor and the Open University's Digital Health Lab.We have been delivering participatory dance sessions in residential care settings for many years and have witnessed over and over the power of music and dance to support residents and staff to enjoy being active and creative together, with the resultant impact on their health and wellbeing. We also have experience delivering digital dance and creative activity sessions with elderly and isolated individuals throughout the pandemic and beyond. Our proposal is to create a scalable solution which will draw on all our learning and skills, accelerated recently through digital delivery during Covid-19; taking the burden away from care home staff to constantly provide engaging activities, by giving them access to targeted participatory content to share with their residents.We will build and test a 'prototype' product, an easy-to-use and accessible digital platform containing a range of high quality and engaging arts content, specifically targeted at tackling inactivity in the elderly in care settings, including those with dementia. The feasibility study will include market research and user-centred design cycles in consultation with The Open University's Digital Health Lab. Most likely the resultant product would be offered as a subscription-based product/service, involving a bespoke platform which allows users to access a variety of performance and participation content and events on demand from a content channel that grows over time.This would include a variety of content strands: short engaging and inspiring participatory singing and dancing sessions targeted at increasing mobility, strength & balance, and respiratory function; tea dances encouraging social connection and enjoyment whilst increasing activity levels; and Big Night In programming eg live streaming of dementia-friendly concerts. There will also be a support package for care home staff, including resources and ideas to integrate wider creative activities. Initially focused on a group of 5 care homes, this model could potentially be delivered at scale, with the key aim of improving the wellbeing of care home residents and staff across the UK and beyond.