Birmingham Children’s Hospital Charity launches new art appeal to support mental health patients
Birmingham Children’s Hospital Charity intends to harness the power of art with its new Inspiring Spaces Appeal, which needs to raise £170,000 to transform the clinical environment of its young mental health patients, helping to improve wellbeing and aid recovery.
The hospital’s in-patient mental health facility, Parkview Clinic, located in Kings Heath, cares for young people aged 11-18 years old who are experiencing significant mental health illnesses, including severe anxiety, self-harm, psychosis and eating disorders. Patients can stay anywhere from between a couple of months to over a year, so the clinic quickly becomes a home away from home for them.
Studies have shown a patient’s environment has a direct impact on their experience, recovery and health outcomes, with inspiring artwork helping to improve levels of stress and anxiety, enabling them to participate more fully in their care. Currently, the areas within Parkview reflect a typical hospital environment, exposing patients to uninspiring, stark, sterile, white walls.
The Inspiring Spaces Appeal will change this. The charity is partnering with Hospital Rooms, an arts and mental health charity, which collaborates with artists, service users and NHS mental healthcare specialists, like Parkview, to craft innovative artwork and creative programmes, to transform health spaces into places of hope, dignity and recovery.
Twelve well-known artists have been commissioned to work with the patients at Parkview to develop art installations which will be displayed across the clinic – from wards to communal spaces – giving the young people the opportunity to express themselves and engage meaningfully with contemporary art as part of their care and recovery.
Mark Brider, chief executive officer at Birmingham Children’s Hospital Charity, said: “The hospital environment is an important part of the patient experience and this appeal will help improve it dramatically for our young people. Engaging them in this process will give them a sense of ownership and control of their space, elements that are often severely lacking in a mental health facility.
“We need the help of the public to do this. By raising £170,000 we will be able to completely transform the spaces in Parkview from a white and sterile environment to something colourful, creative and inspiring for our young people, which will give them hope and support their recovery. We hope people will get behind this appeal.”
Dan O'Mara, head of nursing at Parkview Clinic, part of Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, added: "We're so thrilled to have the opportunity for our clinic to be transformed in this way, working with the Hospital Rooms team. The team has really taken the time to understand our current stark and clinical environment and how it can be improved to not only benefit the wellbeing of our young people, but our staff too.
"They also understand how important it is for our young people to be centrally involved in the process, so the environment reflects their opinions, tastes, thoughts and feelings. This project will be so much more to us than just something to look at. We look forward to working with the artists to engage our young people, so the artwork can become part of the therapeutic experience we offer for them."
Niamh White, co-founder and director of Hospital Rooms, said: "We are thrilled to be collaborating with Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust and its charity to create inspiring and transformative spaces for young people at Parkview Clinic. We believe this collaboration will have a lasting impact, shaped by the voices of those who use it."
The artists who have been commissioned to support the transformation of Parkview are at varying stages of their career, from emerging artists to those who are world-renowned, and come from Birmingham, across the UK and even globally.
They include Exodus Crooks, a British-Jamaican multidisciplinary artist and educator based in the Midlands, who is interested in self-determination and how it is steered by religion and spirituality; Rhys Coren, a London-based artist working across animation, writing, performance, painted marquetry and furniture; plus Charley Peters, an artist whose work examines how digital culture shapes contemporary perception and has been exhibited internationally, with recent shows in the US, China and Poland.
The artists will soon start a series of workshops with the patients at Parkview to develop the art installations, ensuring the environment reflects their tastes and feelings, while staying true to the artist’s style.
For further information about the Inspiring Spaces Appeal or if you would like to donate or fundraise for the campaign, visit Birmingham Children’s Hospital Charity’s website: bch.org.uk/inspiring-spaces-appeal.
