About Roots of Remembering
Roots of Remembering is ostensibly a collaborative visual art project for residents and staff at Brindley Manor Nursing Home in Convoy, Donegal. Led by experienced socially engaged artist-facilitator Rebecca Strain, together they created a ceramic artwork of mosaics and an accompanying book. An underlying ambition was to gently explore mutual experiences of dying, death, grief, and loss as they worked in a bid to normalise such sensitive discussions.
Encouraging Conversations on Dying, Death, Grief and Loss in Nursing Homes
At the core of Rebecca’s practice is using creativity as a means for processing complex emotions within groups. However, doing so in a nursing home as a tool for encouraging conversations around grief and loss was a first for her. As such, Rebecca and Brindley Manor’s staff were a bit worried about how this might affect some of the residents. After much reflection, Rebecca decided openness about this would be best.
“I was just honest and said, look, I'm really nervous. We're going to be talking about grief and bereavement and we're going to make a bit of time to listen to each other.”
What happened next took everyone’s breath away. Everyone, that is, except for participating residents. According to Activity Therapist Danielle Kerrigan the floodgates banged open.
“It wasn't just about grief; it was about everything. And it made the residents talk more than they’ve ever done. And I'm here nearly five years, so I noticed a big difference.”
Fellow Activity Therapist Sandra Craig agrees:
“The first group I was there for was absolutely amazing. We learned so much. We learned so much about our own grief, as well as their grief.”
Creating a Mosaic
Over the following months, residents and staff came together every week to make their own mosaic tiles from scratch using clay. These were then assembled into the form of a tree, including roots. As they worked, chatted, and listened, participants were encouraged to think about symbols, images, and texts they’d like to use in their tiles as a means of remembering / celebrating lost loved ones. A great deal of consideration was also given to engaging male residents. Rebecca knew from experience men often resist participating in activities that don’t seem to have an obvious meaning or purpose.
“What I do is I tell them I have a lot of work to do, and I need them to help me. And when they think that they're helping me, they'll get involved. And when they're involved then we can start to have conversations.”
Bringing the Nursing Home Community Together
Over time, the workshops extended beyond residents and staff to the whole nursing home community. Equally, the act of creating gave people a fresh way of doing something together. As Elaine, the daughter of one resident, told us:
“For me it was lovely doing art beside Mum. ... We did everything together, and now it's limited. It's bringing families and relatives together, and it's just so beautiful.”
A participating resident was equally enthusiastic, both about the project and Brindley Manor.
“The staff make the resident feel like they’re a person and they're important. I really enjoyed working with Rebecca on the mosaic. It's just given me something to add to for the future. ... It's given me the feeling that I'm doing something for myself.”
Reconnecting with the Soil
Much of the success of these workshops lies in detailed preparation, right down to the choice of materials, including clay. As Rebecca told us:
“The clay is very much related to soil. In this region, a lot of people have backgrounds in agriculture. I think reconnecting with the soil, feeling the temperature of it, the texture of it, being able to manipulate it, and create things with it, had a real kind of impact.”
Supporting Care and Compassion at End of Life
These workshops were conducted in conjunction with Caru, a continuous learning programme for care and compassion at end of life in nursing homes. Clodagh McGuinness, Caru Regional Lead, visited the project and told us:
“Caru are trying to bring in a cultural change so that people are open to talking about death and dying in nursing homes. In these workshops, even staff were having conversations about their own bereavements. If staff are comfortable talking about this, then it makes it much easier for a resident to talk to them about their own griefs and losses, knowing staff will understand where they’re coming from.”
A Permanent Installation
The completed Roots of Remembering mosaic will be permanently installed in Brindley Manor’s garden for all to enjoy later this year.
Background
In conjunction with Caru (a continuous learning programme for care and compassion at end of life in nursing homes), Irish Hospice Foundation (IHF) awarded Seed Grants to six projects around Ireland to focus on creative exploration and responses to grief and loss in nursing homes.
These projects are aligned with Caru’s ambition for quality improvement in the culture of care. The focus is on the whole nursing home community — residents, staff, owners, relatives, kinship groups, and friends. These projects are being documented and evaluated throughout to demonstrate how creative work can mitigate the impact of the myriad of griefs and losses associated with nursing homes. These range from loss of home, pets, relatives, possessions, privacy, independence, friends (both old and new), to planning one’s own end of life, and everything in between. And for staff – enduing the inevitable loss of residents. Learn more about our 2024 Seed Grant Projects on Arts in Residential Care.
About Caru
Caru is an initiative of Irish Hospice Foundation (IHF) in partnership with All Ireland Institute of Hospice & Palliative Care (AIIHPC) and the Health Services Executive (HSE). Learn more at Caru.ie.
About Brindley Manor Nursing Home
Brindley Manor is a private nursing home set in two acres of mature gardens on the edge of Convoy Village in East Donegal. Learn more about Brindley Manor.
About the Artist: Rebecca Strain
Rebecca Strain of Artlink is a visual artist, writer, curator and arts project manager currently based in Inishowen, Co Donegal, Ireland. She has an MA Fine Art from the Arts University Bournemouth in England. In 2017, Rebecca began to occupy ‘The Potting Shed’, an artwork by Christine Mackey at Fort Dunree. She established Amach Anseo (From Now On), which continues to operate as an activist space through horticulture and counterculture promoting hopefulness through action. Rebeccas has previously worked with IHF on initiatives such as our Donegal Compassionate Community Network and Arts in Healthcare ‘Pause’ project.
