Workshop
Friday, Sept. 26th, 10 am
Rhubarb Patch, R.K. MacDonald Nursing Home, Antigonish
Romi Jones is currently visiting Canada and USA (funded by the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust) with two aims: to learn more about creative writing (and other arts) with people with dementia, and to research the connections between voices of those living with dementia and policy to develop dementia-friendly communities. She is particularly interested in visiting and meeting people in Antigonish to get a perspective of working with arts and health in a rural setting which has some similarities to rural North Northumberland where she is based in the UK.
During the workshop, she would like to share her experiences of developing projects involving creative writing with older people with dementia, informed by her experience of community development with disadvantaged groups and individuals.
Hopefully, this will lead to a wider group discussion about some of the successes and challenges that she – and participants – have faced in this kind of work, which include:
- Fascinating conversations amidst the challenges of participatory practice in a dementia care setting
- Honouring the views and opinions of older people: does their ‘truth’ sometimes create a ‘negative’ image?
- What are we trying to achieve? ‘Social Care’ versus ‘Art’ versus ‘Advocacy’ versus ‘Public Relations’? Do the categories matter?
- Collaboration with other artists, care staff, carers.
- How important is the literary/artistic outcome? What is the impact on the writer’s (or writers’) own practice?
Romi Jones will be coming to us from the U.K., where she is a writer who has developed workshops for those with dementia.
She is travelling in North America as a Winston Churchill Trust Fellow, and is giving workshops as well as studying programs involving the arts for individuals living with dementia.