In line with the broad focus of concern of the healthcare professions, and those involved in healthcare on a voluntary basis or as a carer, art speaks to humanity and to human suffering, recovery, development and loss.

This poetry-writing project explored the feelings evoked through having/recovering from a stroke in order to shape positive rehabilitative narratives with stroke survivors. Material was gathered through talking to stroke survivors at three local stroke clubs. The project aimed to provide an opportunity for participants to talk about their stroke in non-medical terms, in a way that promotes their social and community inclusion, and that is sociable, encouraging the use of speech and interactivity as well as stimulating memory and language skills. Their words were turned into poems (by Kate Tym), which formed the basis of a performance and pamphlet.

poetry

In terms of the stroke survivors and stroke clubs this project provides something new and stimulating to focus on. It will be a useful emotional outlet through contact with a non-clinical person and a platform for the expression of an individual’s thoughts, hopes and feelings. The additional benefit of this is that it also provides a mechanism for this information to be fed-back into the statutory and voluntary healthcare and higher education systems. Moreover, students and clinical, educational and volunteer staff will benefit from increased awareness, and experience, to the clear value of arts-based approaches to healthcare. There will also be the broad benefit of cultural citizenship and new links being forged between the university and the wider community.

Stroke clubs are a community based initiative and rely on volunteers for their existence. They have expressed a willingness to take part in this project and are interested in opening their doors and sharing what they do with staff and volunteers from the university. They are at the heart of continuing care for stroke survivors. In the future, we feel that this project will impact on good neighbourliness, positive relationships with the local communities, volunteering, and with local and academic understandings of the experiences and needs of stroke sufferers.

A huge amount of information was obtained from stroke survivors on how having a stroke had impacted on their lives. All of the volunteers commented that they had found out things they would never have found out in their role as a nursing student in practice, because the questions they were asking were very different.

Those in the stroke clubs also felt they gained some insight into their own condition as it was reflected back to them in a different way. This ‘knowledge’ has also been disseminated through ‘guest lecturing’ by Kate, and once the pamphlet is published will continue to circulate more widely. Kate also gained an insight into the world of academia which is very different to the creative environment she usually inhabits!