Bloomsbury Festival in a Box: engaging socially isolated people with dementia

布鲁姆斯伯里艺术节是一个既定的年度活动，致力于庆祝布鲁姆斯伯里及其不同社区的文化、智力和社会财富。作为一家注册的慈善机构，该艺术节全年支持社区项目，这些项目通过创造美丽的艺术来激励人们的生活发生积极变化。通过AHRC资助的伦敦大学高级研究学院主办的布鲁姆斯伯里文化节文化参与项目(2013年2月至5月)，布鲁姆斯伯里艺术节利用高级研究学院的跨学科人文研究专业知识来制定和完善其文化参与方案。具体地说，它试图找到一种方法，既扩大并批判性地审问其在布鲁姆斯伯里和更广泛的卡姆登地区与难以接触和脆弱的社会群体所做的工作的影响。将患有痴呆症的老年人确定为能够进行多感官文化参与，但通常无法参与节日外展计划的核心人群，该项目的早期成果是与Age UK Camden的痴呆症之友服务建立了互惠关系，该服务支持卡姆登的痴呆症患者。布鲁姆斯伯里音乐节与该机构密切合作，并借助卡姆登和伊斯灵顿NHS基金会信托基金的名誉老年精神病学家克劳迪娅·库珀博士的专业知识，在2013年8月至10月期间，将开发、试验和分析一个巡回的“盒子中的音乐节”推广项目，该项目将把与音乐节相关的材料盒子带到无法离开家参加文化生活的人手中。除了作为治疗设备，这些盒子还将形成创新的研究船只，收集关于卡姆登老年痴呆症患者文化参与价值的定性数据。布鲁姆斯伯里节的盒子经过精心设计，包括一系列感官和文化材料，将促使服务用户做出叙事反应和回忆，它将产生社会刺激，以及痴呆症患者对新活动、新想法和新体验的兴趣。因此，该项目不仅将使直接参与的个人受益，而且将使更广泛的研究社区受益。布鲁姆斯伯里音乐节将为服务用户提供一个独特的机会，让他们参与通常被排除在外的文化活动，并反过来通过一个备受尊敬的文化论坛提高人们对痴呆症患者的认识。此外，它将为那些患有痴呆症的人提供一个分享他们对该地区的知识和故事的机会，提供对布鲁姆斯伯里和周围地区的历史和洞察。由于一些服务使用者已经在该地区生活了多年，参加外展计划不仅是他们积极重新参与社区生活的机会，也是参与重新叙述布鲁姆斯伯里本身的历史的机会。在每周访问服务用户家中的过程中，这些盒子将成为微型的“互动档案”，在外展体验的过程中收集丰富而不同寻常的数据。预计将在该地区和全国范围内对拟议的研究项目产生极大的兴趣。考虑到这一点，项目的最终结果将通过一个网站和一份学术出版物以及一项为期一天的活动传播，该活动将把老年学和艺术与健康领域的从业人员和研究人员聚集在一起，提供一个知识交流机会，旨在进一步分享这一领域的专门知识和研究方法。

The Bloomsbury Festival is an established annual event dedicated to celebrating the cultural, intellectual and social wealth of Bloomsbury and its diverse communities. A registered charity, the festival supports community projects year-round that inspire positive change in people's lives through the creation of beautiful art. Via the AHRC-funded Bloomsbury Festival Cultural Engagement Project hosted by the School of Advanced Study, University of London (Feb-May 2013), in 2013 the Festival has drawn upon the interdisciplinary humanities research expertise in the School of Advanced Study to develop and refine its cultural engagement programme. Specifically, it has sought to find a means of both extending and critically interrogating the impact of its work with hard-to-reach and vulnerable social groups in the Bloomsbury and broader Camden areas. Identifying older people with dementia as a core population capable of multi-sensory cultural engagement, but typically unable to participate in the Festival's outreach programme, an early outcome of this project has been the establishment of a reciprocal relationship with Age UK Camden's Dementia Befriending Service, which supports people living with dementia in Camden. Working closely with this service, and drawing upon the expertise of Dr Claudia Cooper--honorary consultant old age psychiatrist to the Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust--the 'Bloomsbury Festival in a Box' project will between August and October 2013 develop, trial, and analyse a peripatetic 'Festival in a Box' outreach project that takes boxes of materials associated with the Festival out to people unable to leave their homes to take part in cultural life. As well as being therapeutic devices, these boxes will form innovative research vessels that will gather qualitative data on the value of cultural participation among older people with dementia in Camden. Carefully designed to include a range of sensory and cultural materials that will prompt narrative responses and recollections from service users, the Bloomsbury Festival boxes will engender social stimulation as well as interests in new activities, ideas and experiences among those living with dementia. The project will therefore benefit not only the individuals directly involved, but the broader research community. The Bloomsbury Festival in a Box will offer service users a unique opportunity to participate in a cultural event from which they would normally be excluded, and will in turn raise awareness of those living with dementia via a highly respected cultural forum. Moreover, it will offer those living with dementia an opportunity to share their knowledge and stories of the area, providing history and insight into Bloomsbury and the surrounding locale. As some service users have lived in the area for many years, participation in the outreach programme will not only be an opportunity for them to actively re-engage with community life, but also to participate in re-narrating the history of Bloomsbury itself. Over the course of weekly visits to the homes of service users, these boxes will become miniature 'archives of engagement', gathering rich and unusual data over the course of the outreach experience. A high level of interest in the proposed research project is anticipated, both within the area and on a national scale. Reflecting this, the final results of the project will be disseminated via a website and an academic publication, and via a one day event that will bring together practitioners and researchers in fields of gerontology and arts and health for a knowledge exchange opportunity intended to further the sharing of expertise and research methodologies in this field.