Time Bandits or the Alchemy of the Arts

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Title: Time Bandits or the Alchemy of the Arts

Authors: Judy Seall and Isabelle Latham  

What is Time Bandits?  

 

Time Bandits Arts Club is the creation of Judy Seall, a family member at Hallmark Care Home’s Henley Manor. As Head of Drama at a local, independent school, Judy understood that The Arts can build confidence and provide a platform for connection and joy. The aim of the club was to push the boundaries of intergenerational and arts work with people living with dementia by moving away from highly-structured activities. Instead, Time Bandits offered a more flexible and relationship-centred approach in which regular club afternoons encourage creative activities between the same small group of young people and residents. 

 

Judy explains her inspiration for the project:  

 

“Can you remember your first kiss?  Probably. What about your fifth kiss? Unlikely. A memory can be fleeting or something that we hold on to tight for years until it quite suddenly and unexpectedly disappears altogether. I can remember the yellow front door of the first house I grew up in, the taste of the cheese bread that only my long dead grandmother knew how to make but I have no idea what I ate for dinner last Thursday.  

According to the Alzheimer’s Society, every 3 seconds someone is handed a diagnosis of dementia.  Every family will be touched by this disease.. My father died of it and my mother is currently living with the disease at Henley Manor. Could the Arts have an impact on individuals living with dementia, and what might a project look like?  

Out of all this thinking Time Bandits became a thing. Seven brave students of Dolphin School, aged between 11 and 13 – and two equally brave teachers - fearlessly volunteered to visit the care home on a weekly basis. They met with 7 even braver residents living with dementia who had been invited by care home staff.  Together we were the Time Bandits and we met each week during the summer term to collaborate on a variety of Arts projects.  Here to change the world, or to tilt it slightly and look at it through a different lens?  We were inspired by the work of the theatre company, Fevered Sleep, whose strapline is ‘Changing the world one unlikely Arts project at a time’.”  

 

 

What happened at Time Bandits?  

One of the exciting things about Time Bandits – that set it apart from other inter-generational activities the care home had taken part in - was that the young and resident Bandits decided on their activities themselves each week. This led to an eclectic programme across the 8 weeks, as Judy explains:  

“During our first session young Bandits were paired up with resident Bandits and given a box of brightly-coloured conversation starters:  Questions that did not rely on memory: If you could go up in a hot air balloon, where would you travel? If you were King for the day, what would you do first? 

Henry, one of the resident Bandits, immediately impressed Seren his young partner with his answer to this royal question:  

‘My very simple philosophy in life is try and be fair.  It sounds very simple but it’s bloody difficult to do.’  

Seren later reflected just how much she learnt from talking to Henry, just in this first meeting; 

‘What surprised me about working with the resident bandits - they were very knowledgeable.  Henry knows so much about animals.  He taught me loads about quite a few animals and I really enjoyed that.’  

Relationship building was intentional, not accidental.  Younger and resident Bandits came together as equal partners, with a common purpose.  It was therefore important to encourage all to take the lead on Arts activities, so Martha suggested doing some magic tricks and Paige thought of playing board games together. Henry wanted to meet my dog and Julie said she was happy with “the young ones deciding”  Each session began with a warm-up activity: We created soundscapes to an original story featuring the Bandits, played instruments, sang, and completed voice and movement exercises. 

Over the weeks we drew, played board games, formed a choir, created models, followed a mindfulness visualization, painted a large mural and laughed.  A lot!  During the activities individuals were encouraged to make up their own rules, explore their artistic talents and increase each other’s self-esteem. Everyone’s favourite week was probably when boxes of wigs, moustaches, sunglasses and random props arrived with cameras.  A photography session!  The Bandits dressed each other up and then took photos of each other.  Young Bandit Jack commented,  

‘I had a great time this week because I had a top hat from one of the costume boxes and every time I walked past, (resident Bandits) Barbara and Donald would compliment me.  Every time! And one time Barbara said to me ‘You’ve got to keep that hat on - I can’t let you take it off!’  

Above all, the aim was to encourage everyone in the room to experience joy, humour and human connection. 

 

How did we measure success?  

We wanted to make sure we could assess how effective the club had been for residents, learn for future projects and ensure that the residents were able to tell us about their experiences in their own words – even when some found it difficult to express themselves.  

Therefore, to do this we gathered the following data:  

• The number of attendees each week.  

• A record of each resident’s experience per session, (a total of 67 records)  

• Residents’ responses each week to the immediate post-session question “Did you enjoy the afternoon?” 

• A reflective diary by the Director of the club  

• Interviews with the care home’s Dementia Care Manager. 

 

Findings:  

Session attendance and feedback:  

The number of club members who attended varied each week because of illness, choice and other commitments. By week three, additional students and residents wanted to join and attended if space allowed.  

Of the 7 original resident members:  

• 2 attended all 8 sessions with all others attending 6 or more.  

• 6 more residents (who were not originally invited) showed an interest in joining 

• 98% of individual resident records rated the session as positive (with only one rated neutral and one negative from 65 ratings).  

The image below shows the resident Bandits’ responses at the end of each session. These were overwhelmingly positive and accompanied by smiles, nods and eye contact from those who couldn’t easily find words.  

 

Lessons for the future:  

Analysis of the interviews and diary revealed the following key learning:  

 

Relationship-Building:  

• Student and resident Bandits made good friendships that strengthened each week.  

• Repeated contact between the same student and resident Bandits each week was central to relationship-building.  

• Lots of residents and students wanted to take part, but having a small group helped foster relationships.  

• Doing a “warm up” together before starting each week helped the group to bond  

• Care Home staff really enjoyed seeing the residents taking part and with encouragement would join in. 

• Planning and organization: 

• Music on arrival helped the room feel welcoming and bypassed hesitation from the resident Bandits  

• It was helpful to have the young Bandits ready and waiting in the room before the resident Bandits arrived as this helped the group to feel more familiar and welcoming. However, this required careful coordination in the care home and took additional time because several resident bandits required one-to-one support to move. 

• The young Bandits were often more successful at inviting their partners to attend each session than care home staff. 

• All Bandits liked doing different activities each week although the resident Bandits were often happy to let the young Bandits decide. This flexibility was enabled by a confident and creative group director.  

• Considerations of space and safety were important, but not always recognised by the young Bandit group. The care home needed to take the lead in setting limits for group size and supporting residents to move.  

• The group could have benefitted from additional time each session, but this was limited due to the travel time from the school to care home. A more local group may have been able to have more flexibility.  

 

Case study  

Bandits Robbie and Bill were paired together the first few weeks. In week one, Resident Bill gave clear instructions to Robbie on how to draw a hand and Robbie followed diligently prompting Bill to remark “He’s a very intelligent boy, that one”. In week two they played Jenga together, although quickly dispensed with the rules to build a tower, Bill daring Robbie to test his construction by balancing a full glass of juice on top! Robbie was very proud that the tower was up to the task. When arriving for week 3, Bill was unsure whether he wanted to attend but when he saw Robbie on the other side of the room he remarked “There’s my boy” and headed towards him. As he got closer, Bill asked in French “How are you?” and Robbie put his French learning to the test in reply.  

 

 

Artistic directors: Judy and Matt 

July 2024 

 

Latest exciting news: Time Bandits are finalists for a national award, run by NAPA, in recognition of their excellent achievements.  

NAPA (National Activity Providers Association) is a charity dedicated to making a positive impact on the lives of individuals by championing the importance of activity, engagement and overall wellbeing. We are finalists in the Working Together Award. The winner will be announced on 24 January - wish us luck! 

Judy has also been invited to give a talk about Time Bandits at the UK Dementia Congress this November. 

Watch the movie we made below of the Time Bandits experience.