The promotion of health and well-being through the aesthetic experience is a rapidly developing area, and narrative of hope. Social prescribing/culture-on-referral takes a holistic approach to health and well-being, reducing the risk of medication overuse and dependence. In 2019, the WHO published a report synthesising the global evidence of the role of the arts in improving health and well-being. Awareness, research, demand, and practice around the world continued to grow. Last year, in the UK, new funding to develop social prescribing was announced.
This ACMlab is aimed at bringing together practitioners and the community at large, and kick-starting a debate on growing evidence, interdisciplinary engagement, collaboration, knowledge building, development, and sustainability.
Join us on Thursday 1 July at 18:30 at Mediterranean Conference Centre, Girolamo Cassar Hall, Valletta.
Book your place on https://bit.ly/357r5tf*
Kindly note that due to Covid-19 restrictions this event is limited to 20 people.
*Upon attendance, patrons will be refunded the €5 within a maximum of 15 working days.
Speakers:
Charlotte Stafrace
Charlotte Stafrace (Grech) is an experienced Maltese actress, founding member of established theatre group Theatre Anon, and programme coordinator of ACTive Age Malta.
She has over two decades of active experience in the Maltese theatre scene including television and film work, and as a drama educator working with youths and also vulnerable populations including children and older adults with disabilities.
She has over the past five years been dedicated to working with older adults through ACTive Age Malta bringing together a dedicated blend of creative theatre, physical, reminiscence work and storytelling in the bid to enhance personal, emotional, social, and health dimensions.
She offers creative sessions in the Community via the day care centres, in various elderly Homes as well as occasional intergenerational projects. She has garnered experiences and explored various meaningful activities which are applied to persons with memory loss. She also provides training opportunities for carers and students pursuing gerontology studies in a bid to inject fun and create motivation as part of their continuous personal development requirements.
Lou Ghirlando
Lou is a dramatherapist (warranted psychotherapist) with a special interest in working with people with eating disorders and/or body-image difficulties, and people experiencing bereavement. She works with children, adolescents and adults in private practice, as well as servicing organisations such as Dar Kenn Ghal Sahhtek and the Karl Vella Foundation. She has vast experience working as a theatre practitioner with neurodiverse adults and adults with intellectual disabilities and was founding artistic director of Opening Doors Association.She is currently visiting assistant lecturer with the Department of Psychiatry, University of Malta. Lou is also a Gestalt therapy trainee in her final months of training.
Photo by Drew Rizzo.
Pamela Baldacchino
As a curator for therapeutic spaces, Pamela Baldacchino seeks to bring together her background in care, design, research and art practice.
With Deep Shelter Project, Pam negotiates a vocabulary of creative language from workshops with patients, staff and artists, site-relevant art, performances and design interventions to research. All this serves to define and enhance the therapeutic environment.
To curate is a word derived from the latin root ‘curare’ that is ‘to care for’. Nursing itself is a profession that, simply put, is about care of the ill person. When experiencing the overlap of these roles in an inquisitive way, curating and nursing reinforce each other, leading to the development of a relational and artistic practice in a clinical setting.
A personal encounter with the individual journeys of people living with cancer and with the staff working at SAMOC has helped direct the enquiry happening. Whilst navigating this uncomfortable terrain and the human drama that unfolds within, a curatorial approach focuses on understanding the needs of the space and the people occupying it. Together with Dr. Benna Chase, principal psycho-oncologist at SAMOC, they are researching ways in which one can increase the ‘holding’ value of a therapeutic setting using presence, art, nature, space and design, consequently revealing insights related to the cancer journey.
Pamela, through the creation and curation of Deep Shelter Project, has been awarded the Best Project in the Community at the Malta Arts Awards, 2019.
Marika Fleri
Marika Fleri has been practicing aromatherapy for the past 20 years in Malta focusing mainly on education, promoting safe use of oils through various media. She is specialized in complementary therapy use in oncology, palliative care and with people with life limiting illnesses.
Marika coordinated The National Cancer Platform which brings together all Maltese non-government organizations working in the field of cancer and she manned a ‘one-stop shop’ concept office at Sir Anthony Mamo Oncology Center for six years. She was also the clinical aromatherapist in residence at the hospital working with other health care professionals to offer an integrative and holistic approach to treatment.
She is a VTCT Tutor, Assessor and Internal Quality Assurer.
She is the founder of The Azure Butterfly Project, a group of professional complementary therapists who are voluntarily offering their services where it is most needed and where otherwise it would be very difficult for people to have access to therapists. Marika now runs AromaHub Malta together with Lorraine Spiteri.
Submitting ...
Saving ...
Any applications related to this entity, will also be automatically deleted.
