Floods of tears...

I find that a lot of water imagery has entered my vocabulary since my beloved Peter died in January.  I referred to 'the sea of one hundred beds' in a care home that I visited in Malaysia.  I talked about waves of recrimination in a family feud, and everyone being awash with emotion when feeling overwhelmed at seeing a beautiful sunset.  It is not just the tears of grief, it is the words to express the enormity of the grief.

Peter and I were involved in a language project over the last couple of years, as we were struck by how various violent words had slipped into everyday conversation: 'I could murder a  bacon sandwich', 'I could kill a decent cup of coffee'.  We started to look at the frequent use of the word 'grab'.  Mainly it was used in relation to food.  There is a brand of potato crisps that is called 'grab-bags';  there is a prominent notice in a supermarket that says 'Grab and Go'; there is another at the airport that invites you to 'Grab and Fly'.  Years ago children were taught, 'Don't grab - just wait' or 'Its rude to grab, just wait to be offered'.  I notice that these example both have the word 'wait' in them.   Maybe that is the issue - we have lost the capacity to wait...

And yes the floods and the rain are other metaphors for how I am feeling at the moment.  Torrents of rain is just one way to express my deep sorrow.

'And the rain it raineth every day'

'Please don't shoot, I'm only playing...'

There are many versions of sand-play and sand-play therapy since Dr Margaret Lowenfeld introduced her ground breaking work in the postwar years; or should I say following WW2!  Play Therapists and Dramatherapists and Jungian therapists all have collections of small  objects and trays of sand in order for people to create small worlds, and tell stories about their lives.  The objects can be small stones, shells, buttons, buckles, items from dolls houses, animals for a farm yard, wild animals and mythic animals, and lots of people from different occupations, ages and ethnicity.  Also there are usually trees, bridges and fences, birds of the air, creatures from the sea and domestic pets.  And more.

The debate I am having at the moment with friends and colleagues is the use of weapons in the play room.  Most people say, 'Oh it is harmless - children have always played with bows and arrows - or guns - or plastic swords.  Surely knights with spears or soldiers with guns don't do any harm'.  After all 'they are only playing'.  My mind shifts to the child soldiers being trained to shoot their families, the fact that many countries have been riven by war long term.  Are we living in a culture of war or a culture of peace?  Or a culture for war or a culture for peace?

By arming children in the play room, in an age when fantasy and reality are often confused, especially on television, is reinforcing the weapon culture.  I just don't buy this, 'children need to be able to express their anger so thats what the guns are for' - there are plenty of ways to express anger without weaponry.  Anyone for a jog?

Elsie Bartlett (1910-2012)

Elsie joined the Creative Care drama group from the very beginning, some 18 months ago, at the Glastonbury Care Home.  Already over 100 years old, she showed a zest for living, and an insatiable curiosity.  Elsie would join in  every  creative activity, from sand play to drawing to music and movement.  She participated in our 'Seaside Holiday' interactive performance and her immediate participation encouraged others to follow suit.  She will be remembered for many years to come, and as a tribute, a new book for carers and therapists, 'Creative Care: creating an alternative pathway...' is dedicated to Elsie.

Which leads me into the sheer excitement and discoveries of my first Churchill visits to Malaysia and Czech Republic, and the great frustration with actualising of the visit to St Petersburg.  I have heard that there is amazing work with the arts and especially masks and theatre, with elderly people.  But to get access to it and a formal letter of invitation, which is necessary to get a visa, is quite another matter.  Watch this space!

As a follow up to one visit in Malaysia, I am returning in September to see if an arts initiative can happen in 100 bed ward for elderly people.  I shall divide them into groups of 10 beds, and work with trained volunteers to do music and movement, singing and storytelling.  Lets see what happens!

Cute little Cubs

Ah, Cute Little Cubs...but beware the telephone iron fist!

Increasingly we are seeing appealing images on our screens, especially in the afternoons, of cute leopard cubs that need saving, desperate children that need feeding, disasters that need supporting.  If we give just £5 per month or even £3, we will be making an enormous difference.  AND we will receive a cute little toy or regular newsletter...

What we are not told is that we will also receive persuasive telephone calls: telephone calls that try to re-assure us they are just giving us exciting new information, or an update on the campaign.  What the 'phone calls are really about is asking us to give yet more money.  Psychologically these calls or promotions feed into an area of our brains that feels we have not done enough, rather like those school reports that merely said 'Could do better'.

Furthermore, is it really allowed to make such calls at 8.45pm to pensioners living alone?  A recent example illustrated how trapped people become in these situations; a pensioner's daughter answered the telephone as her mother was unwell, and when challenged was told coyly, 'Is it really that late - I AM so sorry - we will we ring your mother in a few days'  When asked not to ring, the same coy voice said that only the pensioner in question could make that request!

Yes I could do better, and be more of Friday's Child who is loving and giving, but I am a pensioner, too,  and Saturday's Child who has still to work hard for a living!

Dancing with respect!

As part of my Churchill Fellowship I have visited residential care homes in Prague and have seen some wonderful creative and artistic work with people with dementia and people who are elderly and frail.  The 'Dancing Man', Petr Valeta is extraordinary with the energy he transmits to older people, many of them in wheel chairs or with frames.  Petr dances both for the residents as well as with them.  His sessions comprise group work that gets feet tapping, hands clapping and an anticipation for what is to come next.  He dances with each individual, enthusing them to go beyond their body limits and really dance, treating them all with the utmost respect.  Then he performs for the group and they are enthralled.  As a former professional ballet dancer, Petr is able to combine his own talents with his therapeutic care-home experience and provide something truly magical!

PETR VELETA MA., Ph.D

Dr. Petr Veleta was born in 1952 in Prague, Czech Republic.
He graduated from the Dance Conservatory in Prague, one-year internship at the London School of Contemporary Dance, Academy of Music in Prague - majoring in choreography, Charles University in Prague - Ph.D – "Dance and exercise program for seniors”.

He worked as a ballet soloist in Slovak National Theatre in Bratislava, Music Theatre in Prague and as a chief choreographer in Theatre in Olomouc. As a dance teacher and choreographer, he worked at Slovak and Czech Republic and in several projects in England and Germany. Until 2011 he worked as an assistant director of the National Theatre in Prague. He is a director of Peter´s Dance Centre Prague.
Other activities include dance a movement therapy for seniors with mental and physical disabilities, which is carried out within Czech Alzheimer Society programs and  the Center of Gerontology in Prague 8.

Watch this space, as I plan to bring Petr Valeta to UK as part of our Creative Care training programme.

In My Spare Time...

I am visiting other initiatives in Malaysia and made a recent trip to Taiping to visit the facilities of the Psychiatric Hospital, especially their initiatives with older people.  The psychiatric services are strapped for cash to bring about lasting innovations but I witnessed a lot of very creative thinking.  In former years Malaysian doctors did not choose to be psychiatrists, it was a last resort if you were not very bright!  Forty years ago we rescued a 12 year old 'Orang Asli' (aboriginal) boy who was going to be given ECT - the Filipino psychiatrist said that he could not communicate and was 'out of it'.  When my younger son started talking his own language and brought out a pack of cards to play, the young lad was perfectly able to communicate and interact!  But it was a near thing.

Recently there has been a mudslide that wiped out some Orang Asli houses, killed and injured and rendered people shocked and homeless.  Several of them are in the psychiatric hospital suffering from post-traumatic stress and depression.  This was unheard of in the past when the Orang Asli proved to be very resilient people with a life style to be envied.  However they are losing their homelands and more rain-forest is being decimated for oil palm plantations.  So mudslides are becoming more frequent as ancient forests are being cleared.  (for more about the Malaysian aborigines got to the link on: www.actionwork.com), and also see 'Theatre, Ritual and Transformation: The Senoi Temiars, by Sue Jennings and published by Routledge, 1995).

Isn't it time we took positive action to halt the so called 'march of progress' and considered the loss of habitat, wild life, and an indigenous life-style that could be a role-model for us all.  The Orang Asli, after all were the original inhabitants of Malaysia, long before the arrival of Indians, Malays, Chinese, Javanese and more.  All these people make up the extraordinarily colourful and rich tapestry, that now makes Malaysia.  But it is the Orang Asli who made the fabric into which these new threads are woven.

First stop Malaysia

First Stop Malaysia for my Churchill Fellowship 'Arts and Older People'

Malaysia is a country of extremes.  Of so much pleasure and such a lot of pain.  Totally overwhelmed by a 100 bed ward of elderly people, many with dementia, all dressed in peach cotton and scrupulously clean.  'They don't talk about their families' said one staff member, yet one woman of 100 was stopped from telling me that her son had not visited.  Just where can we start with creative and interactive activities?  Trying to find volunteers to go in in teams and work with small groups.  I drive away and there are all the amazing colours and smells, all the sensory stimulus one could hope for, so I have suggested we find a way for them to have a sensory garden with plants and water and stone shapes.

I go to Ipoh and meet Dr Goh who is President of the Malaysian Dementia Society and find such vision and commitment to finding solutions for older people, especially those with dementia.  He has already implemented the idea of a herbal garden with sweet fragrances, and he has invented a proto-type whereby people in wheel chairs can stand and have eye contact with others instead of being looked down upon.  He is very committed to cross cultural creative stimulus and is encouraging carers to do massage and storytelling.  

As I said - Malaysia is a country of extremes!