IMAGINED: Investigating Meaning-making and the cocreation of Guidelines for Evaluation IN participatory Arts for Dementia

接受痴呆症诊断可能会给接受诊断的人以及家庭成员和护理人员带来新的实际和存在的问题。显然，需要为这些有痴呆症经历的群体提供支持，并为创造意义和联系的空间提供便利。探索参与式艺术在支持痴呆症患者方面的作用的研究表明，有望促进痴呆症患者、艺术家、卫生和社会护理人员以及家庭成员之间有意义的接触。然而，目前的评估方法经常被批评为“减少”艺术和相关体验的线性“影响”。许多艺术家和艺术经理寻求新的评估方法，以证明他们的工作所促进的意义创造的细微差别，帮助向资助者和利益相关者展示他们的工作对PLWD的生活和福祉的重要性。因此，我们的问题是：1)在社区和社会护理（非临床）环境中参与参与式艺术的意义创造过程是什么，对PLWD及其家人和照顾者来说，这些过程如何与健康和福祉联系起来？2)提供艺术和痴呆症项目的艺术和慈善机构认为，在获取参与的有意义方面，当前评估过程的好处和挑战是什么？3)嵌入组织实践的专业艺术家如何与PLWD共同创造可能支持健康和福祉的意义创造过程？4)如何改善艺术家和艺术机构使用的评估程序，使其融入“意义”，以支持向持份者阐明他们的工作，从而优化未来计划的实施和交付？方法该项目将包括创建一个合作生产/咨询小组（CoG），以支持共同设计、开发和交付研究。该小组将在三个工作流程（WS）上与我们合作。WS1将提供对参与式艺术和痴呆症评估背景的更深入理解，并为研究提供学术和战略基础。它将涉及评估过程的绘图调查，并考虑到意义的形成和评估的挑战，对痴呆症参与性艺术的文献进行范围界定。WS2将使用定性、民族志、创造性和参与性的方法，为PLWD揭示参与性艺术项目的意义形成过程，以及专业艺术家在这些过程中的作用。我们将与两个提供参与性艺术和痴呆症项目的组织合作：苏格兰芭蕾舞团（SB）和医院和护理中的音乐（MiHC）。我们将在这些组织提供工作的多个地点进行经验数据收集，包括纽卡斯尔和爱丁堡的养老院以及格拉斯哥的SB工作室。第三次评估将侧重于综合第一和第二次评估的主要发现，以及痴呆症患者和该领域专家的意见，共同制定一个新的评估框架，重点是为健康创造意义。影响项目的潜在影响是巨大的。与目前的评估方法相比，它将对艺术参与的有意义的过程提供更深入、更细致的理解。这将有助于我们更好地理解为什么艺术对支持PLWD很重要，艺术机构如何捕捉这些复杂的过程，以及艺术家在有意义的艺术体验中的作用。对于生活体验研究人员、艺术家、艺术组织和慈善机构提供和评估艺术和痴呆症项目，以及希望更好地了解目前评估领域的差距以及如何根据健康结果和经验阐明艺术参与的意义的政策制定者来说，这将是特别感兴趣的。

BACKGROUNDReceiving a dementia diagnosis may bring about new practical and existential questions for those receiving a diagnosis, as well as for family members and carers. There is a clear need to provide support for these groups living with experiences of dementia and to facilitate spaces of meaning-making and connection. Research exploring the role of participatory arts in supporting people living with dementia (PLWD) shows promise to facilitate meaningful engagements between PLWD, artists, health and social care staff, and family members. However, current evaluation approaches are often criticised as 'reducing down' artistic and relational experiences to linear 'impacts'. Many artists and arts managers seek new evaluation approaches that may support with evidencing the nuances of meaning-making that their work facilitates, helping to demonstrate to funders and stakeholders the significance of their work to the lives and improved wellbeing of PLWD. We therefore ask:1) What are the meaning-making processes of engagement with participatory arts in community and social care (non-clinical) settings for PLWD and their families and carers, and how do these processes connect to health and wellbeing?2) What do arts and charitable organisations delivering arts and dementia programmes feel are the benefits and challenges of current evaluation processes in relation to capturing meaningful aspects of engagement?3) How do professional artists who are embedded within organisational practices cocreate meaning-making processes with PLWD that may support health and wellbeing?4) How can evaluation processes utilised by artists and arts organisations be improved to incorporate 'meaning' to support with articulating their work to stakeholders, thereby optimising future implementation and delivery of programmes?METHODSThe project will involve creating a coproduction/advisory group (CoG) to support with the codesign, development and delivery of the research. The group will work with us on three work streams (WS). WS1 will provide a deeper understanding of the context of participatory arts and dementia evaluation and provide the academic and strategic foundation of the research. It will involve a mapping survey of evaluation processes and a scoping of the literature in participatory arts for dementia in view of meaning-making and the challenges of evaluation. WS2 will involve unpacking the meaning-making processes of participatory arts programmes for PLWD and the role of professional artists in these processes using qualitative, ethnographic, creative and participatory approaches. We will work in partnership with two organisations who deliver participatory arts and dementia programmes: Scottish Ballet (SB) and Music in Hospitals and Care (MiHC). We will carry out empirical data collection across multiple sites where these organisations deliver their work, including care homes in Newcastle and Edinburgh and the SB studios in Glasgow. WS3 will focus on synthesising key findings from WS 1 and 2, alongside input from those with dementia and experts in the field to coproduce a new evaluation framework focused on meaning-making for health. IMPACTThe potential impact of the project is significant. It will provide a deeper and more nuanced understanding of the meaningful processes of artistic engagement than current evaluation approaches currently provide. This will support with improving our understanding of why the arts may be important to support PLWD, how arts organisations can capture these complex processes, and the role of artists in meaningful arts' experiences. It will be of particular interest to lived experience researchers, artists, arts organisations and charities delivering and evaluating arts and dementia projects and to policymakers wishing to understand better the current gaps in the evaluation landscape and how to articulate the meaning of artistic engagements in view of health outcomes and experiences.