Who Is STAA?
A team of 10 artists who are specialists in different
art forms, they work on a freelance basis for STAA on contracts
based around the individuals and groups with whom they work.
Sharon Baker is STAA’s co-ordinator who manages STAA
on a day to day basis.
STAA has an advisory group and a board of trustees
STAA’s patron is Professor Carl Chinn O.B.E.
Artists not Art therapists: STAA’s
artists have skills and experience in working with older
people but they are not Art or Music therapists, they
facilitate sessions but do not analyse creative outputs
or use psychotherapy as part of the therapeutic process. |
Partnership Working
STAA could not exist without our partners who refer people
to us.
STAA is part of the network of secondary level services
for older people with mental health needs- people already
‘in the system’.
STAA works with Community Psychiatric Nurses, Occupational
Therapists and Physiotherapists, nurses, social workers, care
managers and other charities such as Age Concern and Alzheimers.
- “STAA is an essential part of the overall
network of support available”
- Comment form a community psychiatric nurse
|
Funding
Sessions are provided free of charge to individuals living
in Sandwell and to groups with funding from Sandwell Council’s
department of Social Inclusion and health.
STAA gets a yearly grant from Sandwell Council’s Social
Inclusion and Health. The rest we raise from donations and
fundraising. |
STAA's History
STAA was set up to help address the creative, social
and spiritual needs of older people with mental health problems
and dementia.
STAA was born out of a report commissioned by Sandwell Social
Services in 1995: “The Arts in Community care Packages
for EMI Elderly Infirm People” by Alun Bond and Sue
Wilkins. In the 1990s Sandwell Social services recognised
that when they were designing services for older people their
social needs were being neglected. The report identified that
therapeutic benefits could be gained from an arts programme
which could help to maintain and improve the well being of
older people.
STAA started with a grant from Sandwell Social Services and
West Midlands Arts in 1996.
STAA became a charity in 2001. |
