Health & Well-being

For the past 10 years verd de gris have been working at the cutting edge of the role the arts can play in supporting people affected by poor mental health. This has included work with older people affected by conditions like dementia and Parkinsons’ … but also women and girls experiencing very low levels of self-esteem.

The creative work with people living with degenerative conditions like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s dementia has received national recognition.

verd de gris deliver a range of training opportunities for care staff working with older people and volunteers. The success of this work relies on a simple, clear format which works with any given service user group. e.g. staff members don’t need to be artists to deliver it and it significantly increased levels of confidence in delivering creative activities. Feedback shows that this kind of work offers up new ways for staff to engage with clients, so leading to an improvement in the quality of experience they can offer.

We also give talks to university and college students and advocate for a creative approach in care environments: most recent examples include a talk and screening of the Soul Journey film at a dementia symposium with Huddersfield University School of Human and Health Sciences, and a talk and screening at the Impact Conference at MMU organised by Cartwheel Arts, Heywood.

In all our project work our aim is to leave a legacy – an improved sense of the ways in the arts can impact significantly on e.g. daily working methods, enhance quality of life in the long term. One way of doing this is by sharing successes and learning. To this end verd de gris produce a range of FREE accessible resource material which can be used by individuals and groups e.g. living with or supporting older people in informal care settings.

You can find out more about our health and well-being work by having a look at some of the best examples here:

Soul Journey
Through the Door
Who Cares?
Land Beneath My Feet

We are also keen to use film and social media to raise the profile of this work and advocate on behalf of people affected by these conditions.

Watch the short ‘Re-thinking Dementia’ film here:

mob: 07926 978651
mail: jeff.vdg@btinternet.com
Twitter @verddegris
Instagram: @verddegris