Following expert signposting from the NHS Tayside Dementia Nurse Consultant, the Senior Charge Nurse partnered with THAT to commission a professional artist through a collaborative tendering process.
The team initiated a comprehensive environment design project:
Collaborative Co-Design: The artist actively gathered views, feedback questionnaires, and design preferences from Ward 1 staff, patients, carers, and the wider multidisciplinary team to build a true community consensus.
Nature and Local Nostalgia: The corridor was divided into distinct zones reflecting different seasons to create visual variety and curiosity. The artwork prominently features familiar local landmarks and identifiable Dundee buildings to provide a comforting sense of place.
Durable, Distraction-Free Design: High-quality, robust, and highly durable materials were utilised to withstand the excessive wear and tear common in clinical dementia care settings, strategically obscuring keypads and exit buttons behind engaging art.
The installation completely transformed the ward's atmosphere, successfully replacing clinical austerity with immediate warmth.
A Calming First Impression: The seasonal artwork effectively reduced the institutional feel of the ward, instantly lowering anxiety levels and fostering feelings of reassurance for arriving carers and families.
Cognitive Anchoring: The inclusion of local Dundee landmarks created immediate points of interest, sparking conversation, reducing distress, and providing a familiar visual anchor for patients with dementia.
A Platform for Continuous Activity: The completed project has laid the groundwork for future therapeutic work. The ward's activity support worker is now utilising the transformed space to regularly display the patients' own current art and project work.
The Reality of Hidden Pre-Operational Costs: A key piece of organizational learning centered around project budgeting. Rising material costs and the unexpectedly high price of hiring a private contractor to professionally paint the base corridor walls prior to the installation created early financial constraints, highlighting the need for extensive cost padding in future capital environment projects.
The Power of Streamlined Partnership: Navigating an artistic transformation within a high-stakes clinical ward can be complex. Partnering with a dedicated arts charity like THAT streamlined the procurement, artist management, and delivery framework, making the process smooth and highly effective for busy frontline nursing staff.
Lessons Learned & Best Practice
Moving Beyond Reminiscence: Early consultation with Alzheimer Scotland revealed that centering activities purely on memory can be counter-productive. Focusing on the “here and now” validated the participants’ current capabilities and boosted self-esteem.
The Power of Adaptive Delivery: Balancing the administrative need for advanced planning with an artist’s need for creative fluidity was a key learning curve. PTCH successfully managed this by issuing highly detailed, iterative weekly session plans after the artist could properly gauge group dynamics and energy levels.
Trust Facilitates Documentation: By participating in the actual exercises instead of remaining behind a lens, the project’s filmmaker built deep communal trust. This directly resulted in participants feeling entirely comfortable and confident when the time came to record individual interviews and formal poetry readings.
