Throughout 2013 activities including creative movement, singing, poetry reading and writing and drama will be organised and run at the Oakwell centre at Kendray Hospital in Barnsley to give people the opportunity to unlock their creativity and build self-esteem and confidence through arts.
People can join in with the activities as part of a small group or on a one to one basis at regular weekly times. Staff running the sessions actively engage people taking part and tailor each activity to fit with peoples individual and changing needs.
This project builds on the success of previous groups and taster sessions run at the Oakwell centre which received very positive feedback from service users and staff.
The creative sessions are delivered by staff in the service and Louise Edwards from QDOS creates who specialises in community based artwork.
Karen Khamis- Burtoft, senior occupational therapist at Kendray hospital explained, “We applied for funding from Creative Minds to allow us to regularly provide creative sessions which had evaluated really well with service users who had already taken part in them.
“Through this project, we are able to offer weekly sessions that people can engage with as they chose to, which will broaden their knowledge and experience of creative activities. By taking part in the different sessions, we are aiming to give service users an insight into how being active and creative can support their wellbeing and introduce them to techniques that they can use in the future outside of Trust services.
“The support of QDOS creates in delivering the sessions will enable Louise to build a relationship with service users regularly taking part and adapt sessions as required depending on their needs, interests and input on things they’d like to try.”