‘Poet in residence’ to work with elderly patients and families in Birmingham

The Royal College of Psychiatrists is delighted to announce that the Birmingham poet, David Hart, will be working as the poet in residence over the next year in South Birmingham Mental Health Trust, which is the largest NHS trust providing care for people with mental illness in the West Midlands. The project is being managed by Professor Femi Oyebode, who is the Medical Director and a well-known poet in his own right, acting as Literature Advisor to West Midlands Arts.

This unique and innovative residency project has been funded by the Arts Council of England through West Midlands Arts as one of the ‘a thousand artists in a thousand places’ Year of the Artist awards, with arts lottery money. It is the first of many initiatives planned by the Royal College of Psychiatrists over the next 2 years to coincide with its new initiative, ‘2001: A Mind Odyssey’ (see below).

Initially, David Hart will be working 1 day a week within the older adults' psychiatry services, with continuing care and day patients and their relatives. In the future he will work in other departments in the trust.

David Hart is a well-known poet. He has previous experience of working within the health arena, having been involved with general practice and in running poetry workshops for psychotherapists and people with mental health problems. He has also participated in the Arts Week at Heartlands Hospital in Birmingham and was a poet in residence at Worcester Cathedral. Among his publications is a book of poems Setting the Poem to Words (Hart, 1998).

2001: A Mind Odyssey

‘2001: A Mind Odyssey’ is a celebration of the arts, psychiatry and the mind and aims to help and inspire those involved in mental health services, both professionals and service users, to express their creativity through the arts. This celebration of the arts is designed to raise awareness of the therapeutic benefits of artistic expression and explore other aspects of people's lives and their creativity.

The project will be launched at the Royal College of Psychiatrists' Annual Meeting in London, 9-13 July 2001 and will finish at its Annual Meeting in Cardiff in 2002. A number of major musical, artistic, theatrical, dance, film, literary and photographic events are planned throughout the country during this period.

For further information contact Deborah Hart or Alexi Wedderburn at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, tel.: 020 7235 2351, ext. 127 or 149; e-mail: [email protected].