Fighting dementia with poetry

Now a Hampshire care home provider is using the power of poetry to aid pensioners suffering from confusion, memory loss and other problems caused by the condition.

A book of poetry, written with the help of people with dementia, has been published by St Barbe Museum & Art Gallery in Lymington.

The Sharing Shorelines anthology is part of a community project sponsored by Colten Care, a family-owned company that runs several care homes in the Lymington area.

An art exhibition took place at St Barbe between September 2015 and January 2016.

It showed how artists from the 18th century to the present day have drawn inspiration from the harbours, beaches and cliffs of southern England.

St Barbe invited people affected by dementia to visit the exhibition and take part in a series of ‘conversations’ about the paintings with poet and storyteller Chris Bennett.

Now Chris has recorded their observations about the artwork and turned them into poems.

He said: “At the beginning of the project we had no idea how people with dementia would respond to the paintings, but people from throughout the community came along. We just took things slowly, looked at the art and chatted about what we saw.

“Their reactions and observations were very interesting, sometimes giving glimpses of their memories including holidays they had spent by the sea.

“I simply took those memories and observations and moulded them into poems.”

Laura Bullivant, community engagement and learning officer for Hampshire Cultural Trust and co-ordinator of the Sharing Shorelines project, said: “We gave people the chance to share their ideas, opinions and responses to major artwork and develop their own creativity through language.

“This has given people with dementia an opportunity to socialise and keep mind active, as well as the chance to enjoy a new learning experience.”

Colten Care arranged for residents from its Linden House and Kingfishers care homes in Lymington and New Milton to attend some of the gallery conversations.

Linden House resident Frances Evans also helped write two of the poems. Her daughter, Sara Shelton, said: “When I heard my mother was going to be involved in writing poetry I was intrigued.

“When a loved one has dementia you often feel that who they once were is now lost.

“But just from looking at the paintings with Chris, mum talked about what she saw and linked them to her own memories - of her love of the sea - even her passion for spring cleaning.

“The resulting poems have the very essence of mum within them, which is wonderful to see.”

Tim Wookey, Colten Care’ s marketing director, added: “The Sharing Shorelines project has been a huge success across the community and we were very proud to sponsor it as part of our overall commitment to community initiatives around our homes.

“I attended some of the sessions at the gallery and saw for myself the inspiring way in which local people with dementia responded to the paintings.

“We were also very pleased to host the St Barbe team at Linden House for a celebration to mark the finale of the project.”

Copies of the Sharing Shorelines anthology are available from St Barbe on 01590 676969 and Linden House on 01590 647500.