Evaluation of Tameside Cultural Arts Pilot Project

SPRU research team

• Jenni Brooks

Project summary

Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council’s (TMBC) public health team is currently undertaking a pilot project around the use of cultural arts interventions to manage behaviours that challenge in people with dementia. This is part of a wider intention to reduce the use of anti-psychotic medication in people with dementia throughout Tameside. The focus of the pilot project is on testing how such an approach is received within a range of settings. It will also seek to understand potential barriers to implementation, if such an approach were to be commissioned on a broader scale. 

Staff members play a key role in ensuring the success of non-pharmacological, psychosocial interventions for people with dementia. Understanding the context around the delivery of an intervention therefore gives a key insight into its likely success. 

Two cultural arts interventions have been delivered for the pilot project:

1. a performance arts intervention, using the Storybox methodology, delivered by the Cornerhouse
2. a music-based intervention delivered by Manchester Camerata, using its ‘Music in Mind’ approach. 

Throughout the pilot project, these interventions have been delivered in seven settings across Tameside. 

Aims

TMBC public health authority has indicated a desire to roll out the cultural arts interventions more broadly, and the aim of this evaluation is therefore to give insight into how the interventions have been received by staff in the pilot settings, and explore the likely barriers to implementation in each setting. This will enable TMBC to plan for the most effective delivery of such interventions in the future by determining the most appropriate settings to focus on. 

Methods

This evaluation will cover a range of perspectives in order to explore the acceptability of the interventions in each site. Views will be sought from:

• TMBC public health team, commissioners of the pilot
• Cultural arts practitioners from Cornerhouse and Manchester Camerata who have delivered sessions as part of the pilot
• Key members of staff in each setting where sessions were delivered

Policy and practice aims

This research will describe how the cultural arts interventions have been received in different settings, and will give insight into the barriers faced by front line and managerial staff as well as commissioners and the local health economy. We will develop an understanding of how a range of partners could work together within Tameside to develop an effective local model for roll out of a cultural arts intervention for people with dementia. A series of recommendations will be presented around the key issues which would need to be accounted for in this roll out, to ensure it could be successfully implemented.

Additional information