Case Study: Creative Home Delivery Service

Introduction

Creative Home Delivery Service provides an arts and health service to older people in their homes to support improvements in mental health and to tackle loneliness and isolation. Designed and delivered by People Speak Up in partnership with the Social Prescribing team/ Prevention and Wellbeing at Carmarthenshire County Council, Hywel Dda University Health Board and Connecting Carmarthenshire. PSU’s team of creative facilitators and artists visit individuals in their home and engage in creative activities such as visual arts, creative writing, storytelling, visual arts and music. Referrals: Social Prescribers, Age Cymru Dyfed, Connecting Carmarthenshire Admiral nurses and self. Creative team offered fortnightly check-ins with a Wellbeing Coach.

The Challenge

Working closely with the Social Prescribing team, they identified the following health challenges facing older people aged 60 and over in their GP cluster areas of Carmarthenshire:- • isolation and loneliness • Mental health conditions; agoraphobia, OCD, social anxiety and negative lifestyle habits (smoking, alcohol abuse) That leads to most if not all chronic health disease. The social prescribers bring their knowledge and experience from the ground to the referral process, The Llanelli Cluster understand the Creative Home Delivery Service well from previous phases of the project that we delivered and have witnessed the impact first hand, this phase broadened the service across the county.

The Approach

585 visits were completed with a total of 100 participants. Older people living across the county of Carmarthenshire, 30% also attended workshops at our hub in Llanelli and our wellbeing space at Carmarthenshire's Living Well Centre. April 2025 - March 2026 3 facilitators: Ceri John Phillips, Pete Mosey, Sam Hood 10 freelance artists : Bill Taylor Beales, Mared Davies, Duke Al Durham, Nerissa Faulkner, Pauline Le Britton, Bethan Wynne Phillips, Lisa Phillips, Stirling Steward, Valeria Szucs, Kate Woodley Fortnightly well being check ins for the team from Reconnection Coach Ali Franks and a post project reflection workshop. Project Budget: The total project budget was £85,000, and we saw no significant changes. The total spent was £85,075, with the additional £75 covered by our reserves. The majority of the expenditure was on fees for Artists and facilitators and travel costs to visit participants. Travel costs were higher than anticipated, as it's hard to estimate this prior to knowing who the participants and artists will be and where they live. The majority of the contingency was used to cover travel costs and a small amount of additional resources/art materials.

The Impact

The evaluation was led by external project consultant Dave Horton alongside Ali Franks, who facilitated the MSC ‘themes and emergent questions’ workshop, People Speak Up CEO Eleanor Shaw and Project Co-ordinator Carys Phillips, who led project monitoring activities. A number of methods were used to measure the impact of the project and to provide opportunities for learning and improvement, including: ● Use of a Wellbeing Numerical Rating Scale (WB NRS) at the beginning and end of each session to measure improvements in participant wellbeing. ● Initial and end of project calls to assess participants’ experiences of the support provided. ● A reflection session reviewing outcomes and learning with project artists and facilitators. ● A Most Significant Change (MSC) evaluation. Participant wellbeing scale stats (WB NRS) 96% of participants showed an increase in improved mental health and wellbeing. 78% of participants show an increase in improved mobility. 85% of participants show an increase in feeling more connected to others in their day-to-day life. This is the first time that I have smiled in ages!” “Look how happy my mother is! Thank you.” For full impact, please visit: https://peoplespeakup.co.uk/impact/creative-home-deliveryservice- 2025.html Lessons

Lessons Learned

The MSC Panel was an excellent day, all involved coming together to share their stories and learn from each other. We introduced a new element with a creative workshop at the end led By Ali Franks which brought out themes for us to explore in the next phase of the service. The reflection workshop with the artists again brought themes and questions for us to address for the following phases. please see for full learnings: https://peoplespeakup.co.uk/impact/creative-home-deliveryservice- 2025.htm

The Legacy

The service is now being scaled up and we are working Delta Wellbeing, a commercial arm of Carmarthenshire Council, To investigate how we can commercialise the service and integrate into Prevention services. Participants have left their home and engaging in weekly activities at PSU Llanelli & Carmarthen - friendships have been formed and connections have been formed.

Website and Social Media Links

https://peoplespeakup.co.uk/impact/creative-home-delivery-service-2025.html

Contact Details

Eleanor Shaw CEO eshaw@peoplespeakup.co.uk 07972651920

Tags: #olderpeople #carers #dementia #isolation #Befriending #socialprescribing Your

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