Equal Arts is a well-established charity with a remarkable track record of supporting older people to lead fulfilling lives, mainly through the lens of art and creative opportunities. With over 20 years of experience, Equal Arts has been at the forefront of championing the idea of positive ageing, not only in Newcastle but also in other regions across the country.

At St Martins Care we are a provider of care and support services to approximately 400 older people residing across our six care homes located in the Northeast. Organisations such as Equal Arts are critical in ensuring our knowledge and practice are current and informed by people who have lived experience.

St Martins Care's Innovative Approach

We're all about keeping up the routines and structures that meant a lot to residents when they were at home, maintaining independent living skills as much as possible and promoting choice and control for everyone. The first step in embedding this ethos was a radical decision to completely change our approach to ‘activities’. 

We removed the traditional ‘activities coordinator’ role from our structure and shifted our focus to supporting people to live well in whichever way has meaning and value for them. We have placed ‘living well’ at the heart of everything we do, across every role in the organisation and we view this as everyone’s responsibility. We have real ambition to develop ‘living well’ to incorporate all aspects of daily living supporting all residents to have access to laundry facilities, cooking facilities and managing their own medication (where assessed as safe).

The Future of Care of Older People

The partnership between St Martins Care and Equal Arts is just getting started! The conference was an amazing platform for networking with individuals and organisations that share similar values to St Martins Care. 

It was a unique opportunity for us to hear from people with firsthand experience and gain insights into diverse ways of engaging with older people through creative activities. In addition we were able to expand our knowledge of local, regional and national resources that could greatly benefit the residents living with us today and in the future. 

This event marked the beginning of a promising collaboration with Equal Arts, gave a deeper insight into innovation happening locally, regionally and nationally and consolidated our ‘living well’ approach. We are excited to move forward with Equal Arts and continue to build a strong partnership for the benefit of all older people living across all our services.