Sari Laitinen

Sari Laitinen: Promoting Cultural Wellbeing in Espoon Hospital

Establishing cultural wellbeing at Espoo hospital the city of Espoo enabled funding for the process in 2020. Espoo Hospital is a centre of excellence for treatment and rehabilitation of the elderly and a support service for patients returning home. The idea of the project was to implement participatory art lead by the artists together with the patients and the staff. By experiencing the effects and the affects of participatory art in hospital setting will be better comprehended and thus enhances the use of arts in the future.

The artists guided three different kinds of art sessions. They were:
– Laulau Songdrawing method adaptation for the elderly
– hospice musicians’ improvised musicking adapted from Music for life-program
– hospital clowns’ pilot work with the elderly.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, all the sessions were implemented via distance connection, with lo-fi sounds. The staff scheduled the meetings and negotiated with the patients about their interest in participating in these art sessions. Altogether 150 patients and 16 members of the staff were exposed in 50 sessions held by the artists. The staff realized participatory art enabling a free and safe place to be creative which enhanced the empowerment of the patient.  The presentation will reveal the ongoing practices of promoting cultural wellbeing in the hospital and the quality of sound is considered.