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

布卢姆斯伯里文化节是一个一年一度的活动，致力于庆祝布卢姆斯伯里文化圈及其多元化社区的文化、知识和社会财富。该节日是一个注册慈善机构，全年支持社区项目，通过创造美丽的艺术来激发人们生活的积极变化。通过由伦敦大学高级研究学院（2013年2月至5月）主办的由ahrc资助的布卢姆斯伯里文化节文化参与项目，2013年，该节日利用高级研究学院的跨学科人文研究专业知识来开发和完善其文化参与项目。具体来说，它试图找到一种方法，既扩展又批判性地质疑其工作对布卢姆斯伯里和更广泛的卡姆登地区难以接触到的弱势社会群体的影响。将老年痴呆症患者确定为具有多感官文化参与能力的核心人群，但通常无法参与节日的外展计划，该项目的早期成果是与Age UK Camden的痴呆症友好服务建立互惠关系，该服务为Camden的痴呆症患者提供支持。与这项服务密切合作，并利用克劳迪娅·库珀博士的专业知识——卡姆登和伊斯灵顿NHS基金会信托的名誉顾问老年精神病学家——“布卢姆斯伯里节日在一个盒子”项目将在2013年8月至10月期间开发、试验和分析一个巡回的“节日在一个盒子”外展项目，该项目将与节日相关的材料盒子送到无法离开家参加文化生活的人那里。作为治疗设备，这些盒子将形成创新的研究容器，收集有关卡姆登老年痴呆症患者文化参与价值的定性数据。布卢姆茨伯里文化节的盒子精心设计，包括一系列感官和文化材料，这些材料将促使服务使用者的叙事反应和回忆，它将激发社会刺激，并对痴呆症患者的新活动、想法和经历产生兴趣。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界受益。布卢姆茨伯里文化节将为服务使用者提供一个独特的机会，让他们参与到通常被排除在外的文化活动中，并通过一个备受尊重的文化论坛提高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，提供布卢姆茨伯里文化圈和周围地区的历史和见解。由于一些服务用户已经在该地区生活了多年，参与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卢姆斯伯里本身历史的机会。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“参与档案”，在扩展体验的过程中收集丰富而不寻常的数据。预计在该地区和全国范围内对拟议的研究项目都有很高的兴趣。考虑到这一点，该项目的最终结果将通过一个网站和一份学术出版物，并通过一个为期一天的活动进行传播，该活动将汇集老年学、艺术和健康领域的从业人员和研究人员，为交流知识提供机会，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.