Understanding the Potential of Clinical-Creative Partnerships to Improve Dementia Care

Engagement in the arts plays a significant role in brain health. In particular, it enhances the care models for people living with dementia and their carers to support longer lives, better lived. The multiple benefits of this engagement in the arts for people living with dementia is already evidenced in the literature.

However, there is little evidence of systematic cross-disciplinary working between the arts and health sectors in Ireland. Most arts practitioners work in pockets of the country and in isolation. There are many inequities in this approach. Access is uneven, and even for those people with dementia who have access, it is limited, time-bound and mostly short-lived. There is a need for a systematic and joined up approach to ensure that people living with dementia and other neuro-degenerative diseases have equitable access to the arts in community, acute and residential settings.

This synthesis report explores the potential of clinical-creative partnerships to enhance dementia care. Spearheaded by Gráinne Hope, Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health at GBHI (Global Brain Health Institute) and Director of Music & Health Ireland, this initiative has brought together musicians, health professionals, researchers, funders, and policymakers to generate new ideas and influence policy in the field of Arts & Health.

Informed by a series of cross-disciplinary roundtable discussions, the report identifies key opportunities and makes a set of recommendations to bridge gaps in dementia care across sectors.

This pilot initiative is the output of a GBHI Pilot Project Award conferred on Gráinne Hope and is funded by the GBHI, Alzheimer’s Association (US) and The Alzheimer’s Society (UK).

Read the Report