Imperial College Healthcare Charity Impact report 2015/2016

Giving NHS staff the chance to enjoy
London’s vibrant arts scene
Hundreds of staff at Imperial College
Healthcare NHS Trust have been
enjoying free access to exhibitions at the
Tate, Royal Academy of Arts and the V&A
thanks to the charity.
The Staff Arts Club, which launched in
April 2015, also gives staff the opportunity
to receive discounts to music, cinema and
theatre events and win tickets to exhibition
openings and gallery events.
It now has more than 1,400 members
across all five of the Trust’s hospitals.
Natalie Craven, the charity’s arts officer,
said: “The Staff Arts Club is a great benefit
for Imperial College Healthcare NHS
Trust staff that offers the chance to engage
with the rich London arts scene.
“Staff have said that it improves
relationships with their colleagues, relieves
stress and makes them feel valued as
staff members in an NHS that is under
increased pressure.
“For the arts team, it enables
us to get to know members of staff through
the events we organise and find out how
we can help improve their workplace
environment through our permanent
art collection.”
“Staff Arts Club is such a fantastic opportunity and a real boost for staff who work long
hard hours with often little reward... Thank you!” Ona Stewart, Birth Centre midwife
at St Mary’s Hospital
Entertaining young patients
Young patients at St Mary’s Hospital are
being treated to music workshops
thanks to events organised by Imperial
College Healthcare Charity.
The charity works alongside rock and
pop music academy The Rhythm Studio
to arrange weekend visits to patients in
children’s services, including some of
the most seriously ill children in the hospital.
The sessions have seen patients playing
a variety of percussion instruments in group
and one to one sessions.
The charity’s arts officer, Natalie
Craven, said: “It was brilliant to see so
many smiling faces.
“The Rhythm Studio tutors do an
amazing job of engaging not only with the
patients but also with siblings and families
who are visiting.”
Helping elderly
patients through
creativity
Aseries of artistic workshops funded
by the charity have been helping to
stimulate memories and thoughts in elderly
patients and patients with dementia.
The project has seen patients in Lady
Skinner Ward at Charing Cross Hospital
taking part in weekly afternoon workshops
involving a variety of art and craft techniques
from painting and drawing through to
creating collages.
It was founded by Royal College of Art
Masters students Laura Venables and Faith
Wray, who go by the name of Paper Birch, and
was so successful at Charing Cross Hospital
in 2015 that it was rolled out in Witherow Ward
and Lewis Lloyd Ward at St Mary’s Hospital in
spring 2016.
Faith said: “Our workshops can make a
genuine difference to patients and staff, as
they give ward staff the time to concentrate
on patients who are in need of more frequent
care. Alongside this, workshops can
encourage mobility of patients and can totally
change the atmosphere around a ward.”
Faith and Laura said sessions often
include chatting and laughing with patients,
hearing their stories, and involving family
members in projects when they come to visit.
Laura said: “There have been so many
highlights. I remember one week in Charing
Cross when a mother and son joined our
session. She was extremely frail at the
beginning, not making eye contact with me
and relying on her son to speak for her.
“Initially they
didn’t want to make
anything so they watched
me demonstrate how to make
various birds and we chatted.
Eventually she began to lean in closer to
get a better look, so we helped move her
chair closer to the table so she could start
to make some robins herself.
“After a while the son decided to join in
and make a paper crane so we made two
together simultaneously and the lady
chuckled and praised him.
“She commented on how even though
his version didn’t look anything like mine,
that it was unique and wonderful, making
him lean in and give her a kiss and a
cuddle in thanks.
“Her son told us it had been amazing to
see his mum smile and laugh when she had
been feeling so poorly.”
Dr Ginny Wright, consultant physician
within rehabilitation services at Imperial
College Healthcare NHS Trust, said the
workshops have had a significant effect on
patients.
“We were impressed at the way Laura
and Faith engaged with our patients, even
managing to bring some of our more
withdrawn patients out of themselves,”
she said.
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