In a tightly contested awards evening, Cardiff & Vale Health Charity’s Arts team picked up the prize for Arts & Business in health for its partnership work with Rubicon Dance.
The Arts & Business (A&B) Cymru Awards 2020 took place virtually on Friday 9 October with an online audience of hundreds of guests from across the globe.
Cardiff and Vale UHB’s partnership with Rubicon Dance, which is funded by the Cardiff & Vale Health Charity, has been running for a number of years and provides older patients with the opportunity to engage in fun physical activity to enhance their health and wellbeing.
Many patients are at risk of physical and mental health decline while they are in hospital and it is well documented that song and dance can help to improve their mood while encouraging them to move.
The project has been led by the multi-disciplinary team in in the Mental Health Services for Older People unit, in partnership with Rubicon Dance, and has proved extremely successful with patient outcomes carefully monitored through a method called dementia care mapping.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the groups took place in wards and units across the UHB and also in community settings. Now, in order to ensure continuity of service, the sessions have been taking place virtually as Rubicon Dance produced a series of videos for use on the wards as well as the Health Board’s rehabilitation website, http://www.keeingmewell.com
The positive impact of the sessions continue as they give patients the opportunity to interact and dance together, albeit in a COVID-safe environment. Funding from Arts & Business Cymru has meant that this vital programme of work has been able to continue.
Simone Joslyn, Head of Arts at Cardiff and Vale UHB, said, “We are so pleased and proud to have been awarded this Arts & Business Cymru award. However, we are even more pleased that our work with Rubicon has been able to continue during these extremely challenging and difficult times. It is clear that the arts are essential to not only the holistic care of patients but to our collective wellbeing and I hope that businesses like ours are able to continue working with artistic organisations long into the future.”
Kathryn Williams, Director of Rubicon Dance, said, “Cardiff and Vale University Health Board and Cardiff & Vale Health Charity and are committed supporters of Rubicon’s Dance in Health Programme, and this has seen the partnership between us deepen over the years. It is wonderful to see how patients have reaped real benefits by taking part in our dance activities and working together has significantly contributed to the sustainability of this important aspect of Rubicon’s work.”
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