The Stars Appeal is the major funder of Elevate, a project supporting older people in hospital. The Elevate project gives older patients an opportunity to enjoy story telling, singing, dance and arts and crafts – keeping their minds active and providing a distraction from hospital life. The project is delivered by the hospital’s art in health service, ArtCare.
Rebecca Seymour from ArtCare says, “Older people often spend longer in hospital and also find it difficult to adapt to normal life when they are able to leave. Creative activities on the ward not only provide physical stimulation and mental stimulation which can help in their overall recovery, but also enable them to return home sooner to their family and friends.”
The activities have an immediate impact on patients, lifting their mood and providing an enjoyable distraction from the general ward routine. One patient in his 80s said: “You have done me the world of good. Listening to the music, my memory came flooding back to me.”
Another woman in her 70s said: “You realise how good it is just to move. I’m buzzing.”
The Elevate project was recently highly commended for its outstanding contribution to improving health and wellbeing at the Wiltshire Assembly Health Improvement Partnership Awards.