Participatory arts and technology project with teenagers in hospital

Helium’s Artist in Residence programme is moving into a new phase in 2012, with an arts and technology project aimed specifically at teenagers in hospitals with chronic illnesses who are in isolation or who are otherwise unable to have normal interactions with their peers in hospital. Helium is currently working on the preliminary research phase of this project in partnership with The School of Nursing and Human Sciences, Dublin City University; The Centre for Health Informatics, Trinity College Dublin; and The School of Nursing and Midwifery, University College Cork. The partners will submit a systematic review of the literature for publication in February 2012.

During this initial phase, Helium will host a series of innovation workshops with artists to develop prototypes for a multimedia intervention. The systematic review and prototyping will feed into a pilot consultation with teenagers living with chronic illness in spring 2012. The aim of this consultation will be to learn how their needs could be met creatively and to gauge their reactions to the prototype interventions presented by the artists on the day. This consultation with the teenagers will feed into the next stage of the intervention’s development and the project will pilot in hospitals in autumn 2012. In conjunction with the arts and technology programme, Helium will be producing a short film project giving a creative voice to teenagers with experience of long-term or recurring hospitalisation.