Community Lifelines: legacy and your story your way
Fereshteh Mehrabi and Francois Beland (2020) chart the effect of social isolation, loneliness and frailty on the health outcomes of ‘community-dwelling’ older adults, noting that ‘[f]rom a public health perspective, identification of lonely and socially isolated older adults might prevent frailty…’ (ibid.).
Dr Nicola Abraham, Senior Lecturer in Applied Theatre practices took her work to Northern Ireland recently, along with research assistant and project co-ordinator, Rachel Hudspith, to collaborate with the Laurencetown, Lenaderg and Tullylish Community Association. Here, Nicola reflects on the project and what they’ve achieved so far.
What is the Project that you’re working on?
LLTCA (Laurencetown, Lenaderg and Tullylish Community Association), have worked tirelessly to reignite community connection post-pandemic. Part of their work has involved the creation of a Befriending Service for older adults, a majority of whom are living with dementia. The service runs a range of engaging activities in collaboration with local artists offering respite for people living with dementia. Part of the remit of the centre has been to bring communities back together to inspire hope, create friendships and as a result improve quality of life. Artie Annie Ltd. is one of the organisations who collaborates with LLTCA and the Gilford Community Club (GCC) are also connected to the partnership. Working with the partnership, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama project team, ‘Community Lifelines’, developed a series of technological innovations to support the project to reconnect people with their communities including a virtual reality 360 storytelling project that has captured stories about the community, both historical and current, and created a permanent VR trail around the community.
How has the partnership developed?
We were aware of a needs assessment that had taken place in the local area of Gilford. The needs assessment revealed concerning data about the rates of suicide and low mood across the community but particularly for those living with dementia who have been socially isolated since the pandemic. To respond to this, we developed a research project working with LLTCA and partners to support older adults isolated at home and to use co-production through creative practice to bring communities back to the community centre in Gilford.
What about sustainability?
Part of the project concerns were around ensuring sustainability for the work post the initial interventions to support people at home and in community contexts, which is why it has been essential to offer masterclass training sessions tailored to the needs of the community to support further innovation.
What are you currently working on?
On our latest visit to Gilford in May, 2023, we created a collaborative community song embodying stories from the community across generations. This resulted in a music video that was launched on YouTube on 27th May. Since its launch, it has gained over 570 views, been shared multiple times across Facebook groups in the community, and received many positive comments from those who took part.
“Great to see the community pulling together to create this”
“This is great! Bringing the community together and showing Gilford is a great place to live.”
“So, so proud of our community right now!!”
LLTCA have really valued the support of Nicky, Rachel and the team to demonstrate the impact of their work with older people in the community at Gilford. Community Centre Manager, Claire Patience said:
“To track [these] changes and gauge the influence of our enhanced involvement, we need the help of people like Dr Abraham whose experience in arts and health is invaluable. This information will be used in our future discussions with our current funder and the local Health and Social Care Trust regarding the extension and expansion of the Connecting the Community project.”
This project has shown the power of co-production with communities to enable them to work together to improve things for themselves.
Bibliography
Mehrabi, F., & Béland, F. (2020). Effects of social isolation, loneliness and frailty on health outcomes and their possible mediators and moderators in community-dwelling older adults: A scoping review. Archives of gerontology and geriatrics, 90, 104119. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.archger.2020.104119