The British Geriatrics Society (BGS) awards its Special Medal each year to someone who has made an outstanding contribution to promoting the health and wellbeing of older people. It recognises non-clinical professionals who have gone the extra mile through their work or volunteering to support older people.
This year’s winner is Angela Conlan, Project Lead at Oxford Health Arts Partnership, which brings creative arts to older people in community hospitals, helping to ensure they can live fulfilling lives.
One of Angela’s notable contributions is her ‘Creating with Care’ project, a collaborative project supported by the Oxford Health Charity, Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust and University of Oxford. The project delivers a variety of arts interventions to patients in community hospitals including dancing, live music and painting. These activities bring therapeutic joy into a clinical setting.
Angela recently completed an Arts Impact Measured service evaluation of the ‘Creating with Care’ project, which found that patients who interacted with artists showed an improvement in mood and an increase in positive emotions from 29% to 94%. The activities facilitated the sharing of memories, and participants’ engagement with the artists, family members and staff has built a sense of community and connection.
Angela is passionate about reducing inequity in the provision of artistic rehabilitative services for housebound older people. She is planning further research on improving older people’s access to treatment, therapy and rehabilitation in their own homes.
Angela will be awarded her Special Medal at the
BGS Autumn Meeting, which is taking place in London between 20 and 22 November 2024.
Professor Adam Gordon, President of the BGS, commented:
Through the ‘Creating with Care’ project, Angela has made a direct improvement on the experience of older people in community hospitals. This project has championed evidence-based methods to deliver activities, research and evaluation which bring joy and positivity to the wards. She is a credit to the partnership between Oxford Health Charity, Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust and University of Oxford, and fully deserving of the BGS Special Medal."
Angela Conlan, winner of the BGS Special Medal 2024, said:
I am honoured to receive this medal in recognition of my work at the Oxford Health Arts Partnership. I have seen firsthand the incredible impact that creative health projects bring to older people in hospital settings, and it is wonderful that the value of these activities has been recognised in this way."
