{"title":"Re-engaging with arts and cultural activities at the Life Rooms: 'It's given me spring'.","authors":"Joanne Worsley, Josie Billington, Ekaterina Balabanova","doi":"10.1186/s12906-024-04539-6","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust's Life Rooms initiative is an established and successful model of integrating arts and culture within NHS provision. In the face of COVID-19, the Life Rooms was restructured to provide a full suite of online resources. Following the lifting of restrictions, in-person arts provision returned to the Life Rooms sites. Additional evidence in respect of the impact on mental health and wellbeing of the return to in-person arts and cultural activities provided by the Life Rooms, as well as the relative merits of online and in-person arts and cultural activities, is needed to inform future planning around in-person, online, and/or hybrid provision.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Interviews with practitioners delivering cultural and creative courses at the Life Rooms (n = 8) and users of the Life Rooms (n = 5) were conducted to explore the impact of the return to in-person arts provision at the Life Rooms, as well as the merits of online and in-person arts provision. Data were analysed using thematic analysis.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Three overarching themes were identified: 'Provision, access, and reach'; 'Value of arts and creativity'; and 'Challenges with the Life Rooms model in the new normal'. The findings demonstrate the critical role of arts and cultural provision in providing stigma-free environments to reconnect the vulnerable and isolated. As re-engagement remained slow, there is a need to be responsive to hesitation around re-engaging in-person. The Life Rooms online learning offer remained vital for those who are vulnerable or otherwise unable to access in-person activities.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>As our findings show a demand for maintaining online provision that enables accessibility together with in-person provision that boosts community connectedness, ensuring continued online access alongside in-person delivery should be prioritised. As mental health demands could continue to grow in coming years as the pandemic evolves, in-person arts engagement could have an important role in meeting mental health needs.</p>","PeriodicalId":9128,"journal":{"name":"BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.3000,"publicationDate":"2024-06-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11180401/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12906-024-04539-6","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"INTEGRATIVE & COMPLEMENTARY MEDICINE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background: Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust's Life Rooms initiative is an established and successful model of integrating arts and culture within NHS provision. In the face of COVID-19, the Life Rooms was restructured to provide a full suite of online resources. Following the lifting of restrictions, in-person arts provision returned to the Life Rooms sites. Additional evidence in respect of the impact on mental health and wellbeing of the return to in-person arts and cultural activities provided by the Life Rooms, as well as the relative merits of online and in-person arts and cultural activities, is needed to inform future planning around in-person, online, and/or hybrid provision.
Methods: Interviews with practitioners delivering cultural and creative courses at the Life Rooms (n = 8) and users of the Life Rooms (n = 5) were conducted to explore the impact of the return to in-person arts provision at the Life Rooms, as well as the merits of online and in-person arts provision. Data were analysed using thematic analysis.
Results: Three overarching themes were identified: 'Provision, access, and reach'; 'Value of arts and creativity'; and 'Challenges with the Life Rooms model in the new normal'. The findings demonstrate the critical role of arts and cultural provision in providing stigma-free environments to reconnect the vulnerable and isolated. As re-engagement remained slow, there is a need to be responsive to hesitation around re-engaging in-person. The Life Rooms online learning offer remained vital for those who are vulnerable or otherwise unable to access in-person activities.
Conclusions: As our findings show a demand for maintaining online provision that enables accessibility together with in-person provision that boosts community connectedness, ensuring continued online access alongside in-person delivery should be prioritised. As mental health demands could continue to grow in coming years as the pandemic evolves, in-person arts engagement could have an important role in meeting mental health needs.