Stroke: Stories of Self through

Art and Science

Joyce Booth, Stroke Association, Project Organiser Stephanie Snow, University of Manchester, Project Lead

Introduction

MY BRAIN SPEAKS TO ME

My pendulum brain still thinks for me,

Alas a part of it has been burnt out.

We’re all mixed up so full of doubt

I am no longer brave.

Mood swings from high to low,

Which way to turn, which way to go.

Happy, angry, sad. So full of ire,

From icy cold to blazing fire.

We are no longer brave.

Our confidence is all washed out

With crippled arm and limpy leg

You’ll find it hard to get about.

We are No longer free?

Emotions raging, stress and such conflict,

Is this, the brain just playing me a trick?

And where has it gone our memory?

We can’t understand why this must be!

I am no longer free.

ARGY

Life After Stroke – Invisible Challenges

• Improved physiological and psychological

outcomes

• Shorten hospital stay

• Reduce drug consumption

• Political buy-in

• All Party Parliamentary Group for Arts,

Health and Wellbeing, 2014

• Culture White Paper, 2016

• Economic benefits

• Creative arts workshop = £32

• GP visit = £65

• Clinical psychologist = £52

Arts for Health Benefits

‘I don’t know where I would have been … doing these sessions has been so

helpful to me, and made me feel like a human being again’.

‘I’ve made friends with some great people, not just the survivors but the

staff’.

‘I’ve done things that I thought I couldn't do … and being able to express

myself in different areas has made the most difference’.

‘The workshops brought my confidence back because I was just stuck in the

house’.

‘It really was one of the best things. … those three blocks of sessions have

been more meaningful to me than any other after-stroke activity I’ve done’.

‘ it’s developed my views of what’s happened to me. It has changed me,

those courses have. I’ve benefited from them tremendously’.

‘My family said they’d seen a change in my confidence as well’.

Participant Feedback

My Broken Brain

I often said it couldn’t be done,

But now I will reply,

I never say that it can’t be done until at least

I’ve tried.

I will dive right in with a determined

Grin, stubbornly going to it.

I tackle that job, I thought, couldn’t be done,

And maybe I can do it.

If my broken brain won’t work as it did before

I need to find another way,

There is not always another obvious “other”

I have to say, but determination must not go away.

You Tube Film

https://www.youtube.com/w

atch?v=ymx5kEGz6_0

Project’s Distinctive Features

Outcomes

Outcomes

Going Forwards

‘I don’t know where I would have been … doing these sessions has been so helpful to me, and made me feel

like a human being again’.

Acknowledgements

With huge thanks to the participants, the artists, the Stroke Association

volunteers and our funders, the University of Manchester and the

Wellcome Trust.

Joyce.booth@stroke.org.uk

Stephanie.snow@Manchester.ac.uk