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St Christopher's Hospice -
expert palliative care for the dying
Schools Project
Public education and health promotion are now vital responsibilities in many areas of healthcare.
The ‘End of Life Care’ strategy** highlights the consequences of a lack of openness and discussion about death and dying. The ways in which society views death and dying can contribute to the experiences of people receiving end of life care, as well as to the experiences of their carers.
The strategy calls for both national and local action to promote public awareness and change attitudes to death and dying. St Christopher’s schools project has been operational since 2006, and has pre-empted the strategy’s call for action. Promoting good and effective palliative care has always been part of the aims and objectives of the modern hospice movement. St Christopher’s is committed to taking this further by working with a range of community groups and hospice service users to dispel myths and promote healthier responses to death and dying.
Although most people realise that death is inevitable, it is something they would rather not engage with until absolutely necessary. The results of a BBC poll in 2005*** showed that there had been little change in public attitudes towards death over the past forty years. Hospices have a responsibility to address this issue and work with communities of people to integrate the concepts of death and dying into everyday lives in a healthy and non-threatening way.
The St Christopher’s schools project has been one way of addressing these issues.
- The project in practice
- Current and future developments
- Music and Arts in Health Promotion and Death Education: The St Christopher's Schools Project
Download the St Christopher's Hospice Schools Project booklet (PDF)
** www.dh.gov.uk/publications*
*** www.icmresearch.co.uk/media-centre-archive.php?month=March&year=2006*
The project in practice
St Christopher's Arts Team and Candle team make sure the school participating is well prepared for the project, that the class teacher is familiar with the hospice, and that permission is gained by the school from the parents for their children to engage in the project. Hospice staff select appropriate patients to participate, usually from the Anniversary Centre.
Week one
A member of the St Christopher’s Arts Team together with a member of the hospice Child Bereavement service visit the school to meet with the children and their teacher and classroom assistants to talk about the preparation work already done in class and expand further on the work of the hospice. This allows the children to raise questions and express any anxieties they may have about visiting the hospice.
The children, classroom assistants and teacher then visit St Christopher's to meet and engage with patients, who will be encouraged to talk about themselves and answer the children’s questions. A tour of the hospice will be given and a group discussion held about plans for the next two weeks with patients, children and artists.
Weeks two and three
Sessions take place on the day where children, patients and artists work together to create artwork at St Christopher's or school. Sometimes, the group will be split in half with one half working at the school and the other half working at the hospice. The focus of both these sessions is to:
- create large works of art for eventual permanent exhibition at the school
- enable patients and children to engage with and relate freely with each other
- answer questions about illness and the patient experience as they arise.
Week four
A two hour session takes place with all participants meeting to celebrate the culmination of the project at St Christopher's, where children and patients present their artwork and talk about their experiences. We encourage as many parents and patients’ family members to attend as possible and the session ends with a tea party in the Pavilion in the hospice garden. The focus of this session is to:
- celebrate the end of the project
- engage children’s parents
- offer the opportunity for the children and patients to present the artwork before it goes on to the school for exhibition
- offer a simple evaluation form to all those involved to gain feedback.
After the project has ended, a debriefing meeting is arranged with the school and the hospice staff involved.
Art exhibitions and performances are key to the success of this project. Embedded within a final celebration event, they are witnessed by a much larger group of people than those who have been involved with the project, and therefore have a much broader impact on the attitudes and views of a larger group of people.
Current and future developments
Although the project began its life focussing on engaging local school children and students, the project has now developed by using other community groups. Groups such as local faith groups, community gardening groups and pubs have now engaged in the project, utilising the same project structure in order to help to change attitudes towards both the hospice and the work that it does. Current initiatives have taken the project further into the community by developing the work within care homes across South East London.
The project engages local community groups with a care home in order to make use of the arts to change attitudes towards the work of the care home, and therefore the residents of the care who live there. It is the aim to develop lasting partnerships between care homes and community groups. Ongoing work is supported by regular support and education meetings for those involved back at the hospice.
Music and Arts in Health Promotion and Death Education:
The St Christopher’s Schools Project
GIORGOS TSIRIS, MARION TASKER, VIRGINIA LAWSON, GERRY PRINCE, TAMSIN DIVES, MICK SANDS AND ANDREW RIDLEY
ABSTRACT
The reality of death and dying is rarely discussed openly in modern Western societies, while death sometimes is even considered to be a ‘failure’ in the context of traditional, medically-focused healthcare systems. Similarly, loss and transition are part of the National School Curriculum in the UK, but many schools still find approaching these subjects difficult. In this context St Christopher’s hospice in London has initiated and delivered the ‘Schools Project’ since 2005.
The St Christopher’s Schools Project is an innovative community arts programme. It takes the form of short-term collaborative arts projects between terminally ill patients and students from primary and secondary schools, as well as colleges within the hospice’s catchment area. The Schools Project has attracted the interest of many other hospices, as well as other healthcare institutions and inspired the development of similar projects, both nationally and internationally.
The aim of the Schools Project is to introduce the hospice and its work to the school communities in a creative and non-threatening way. Within a structured framework students are given the opportunity to interact and engage in music and art making together with terminally ill patients, culminating in an exhibition or performance. Promoting healthier attitudes towards death and dying amongst the students, their teachers, school peers, parents and carers, is at the core of the project.
This paper presents the philosophy and aims, as well as the process and outcomes, of the Schools Project. Additionally, an overview of all of the projects that have taken place at St Christopher’s since 2005, as well as some prospects for future development, are given. This will hopefully stimulate a constructive dialogue with regards to the potential role of hospices and the arts in the promotion of health and death education, as well as their potential impact on the development of sustainable healthcare policies and practices not only in palliative care, but also in other health and social care contexts.
