Volunteers bring bedside poems and stories to ease the pain for hospital patients
VOLUNTEERS: From left, Jessica Leathley, Clare Bennett and Elaine Burke
Hull Royal Infirmary has become the first hospital in the country to support patient care by bringing poetry, stories and chat to the bedside in a partnership which has its roots in the UK City of Culture programme.
Library Link has completed a pilot scheme with volunteers from Hull and East Yorkshire reading poems and short stories to patients in wards and waiting rooms at Hull Royal Infirmary and is now gearing up to return.
Research by Hull Libraries indicates the project has proved a hit with patients, staff and visitors after reaching more than 3,000 people. It has also made a difference with the readers – one man admitting his involvement had enabled him to overcome his dislike of hospitals – and organisers are now looking for more volunteers.
Chris Shakesby, who lives in Sigglesthorne, said: “I applied to do this because I have an aversion to hospitals. Visiting the Eye Hospital and reading to patients took me out of my comfort zone and got me used to being in a hospital environment. I feel much better about them now.”
Launched as Reading Rooms by Derry-Londonderry UK City of Culture in 2013, the project was shared with Hull when it took up the title in 2017. Hull Libraries delivered the service at sites including care homes and a hospice and re-named it Library Link as they extended it into Hull Royal Infirmary as part of Flourish, a bespoke hospital arts strategy developed by Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.
Arts and Health Consultant Elaine Burke, who leads Flourish, said: “The programme is all about enriching people’s experiences and bringing creative solutions to health problems. Library Link is one element, taking poetry and stories and starting conversations in waiting rooms and wards and at bedsides. It has taken the hospital by storm and people love it.”
David Haire, Project Director – Fundraising, at the trust, said: “It is part of a commitment which the trust has made because we recognise that the arts and culture can bring clear benefits to health and help people feel better. The wider programme will bring creative improvements to buildings including treatment areas, wards and corridors.”
Jessica Leathley, Hull Libraries’ Audience Development Manager, said the plan is to expand Library Link to a wider audience including the trust’s site at Castle Hill Hospital as a result of positive feedback from the pilot programme, which was halted by the first Covid lockdown.
OUT OF HIS COMFORT ZONE: Chris Shakesby
During six months at Hull Royal Infirmary the 25 volunteers and Library Link staff delivered 177 separate sessions over a total of 354 hours, completing 3,007 interactions with patients and reading 2,092 poems and stories. They reached 2,245 adults and 759 children and gave out 246 Bookstart packs to new babies.
Councillor Marjorie Brabazon, chair of Hull Culture and Leisure, said: “Stories and poetry have the power to uplift us, especially in difficult moments. I’m delighted that this project is bringing so much joy to people during what can be challenging times.”
The target for the next phase of Library Link, with continuing support from the James Reckitt Library Trust, is to reach a further 1,470 people by March 2022, depending on how soon the hospitals and the volunteers are ready to resume.
Jessica said: “There are departments in the hospital that are super keen to have us back. We were only running for six months before we had to stop and in that time we achieved some incredible outcomes so we are very much looking forward to getting back and there are some really exciting propositions.”
The volunteers worked in wards for elderly people, Children’s Outpatients, a children’s short-stay ward, ante-natal outpatients, two maternity wards, and outpatients at the Eye Hospital.
Clare Bennett, Hull Libraries’ Hospitals Co-ordinator for Library Link, said: “The professionalism and enthusiasm of the volunteers was really appreciated by patients and by staff. Patients were a lot calmer and more engaged after the reading sessions and the volunteers became part of the team.
“One patient told a volunteer they could feel their pain easing as they sat and listened and another said they enjoyed hearing the stories because they couldn’t read or write.
“Many of the volunteers admitted to feeling deeply moved by reading, by sharing experiences and memories and by bringing together patients and their visitors who, at times, had been sitting in silence until they were inspired by the stories and poems. It’s clear Library Link brings benefits to all involved and we would definitely like to get more volunteers on board.”
To contact Clare and for more information call Library Link on 01482 613602 or email: libraryvolunteer@hcandl.co.uk
Library Link volunteers “getting a buzz” from hospital reading service
From a former print worker now typesetting treasured memories to a 38-year health professional bringing joy to patients in her retirement, the volunteers who deliver Library Link are sharing the benefits of a pioneering creative health project.
Dave Turner, who lives at Kingswood and worked as a lithographer and in radio, told how he started reading The Owl and the Pussycat to a dementia patient.
He said: “I started reciting the poem and she joined in. I stopped halfway through and she carried on herself. I got a big beaming smile at the end of it and the others in the ward said it was the first time she had spoken to anybody for a week. I felt enormous!”
On another occasion Dave read a poem about Barmston Drain and he was astonished by the patient’s reaction.
He said: “The man told me he once saved someone from drowning in that drain. He was driving past on his cart and he heard someone shouting so he stopped the cart, jumped in and rescued the man. I said he must have felt good about that but he told me when he went home he got a clip round the ear from his dad for getting his clothes wet!”
Dave Turner
Mary Fox, a former pathology service manager from Gilberdyke, gets a buzz from knowing that she is playing a part in a service which didn’t exist during her 38 years with the NHS.
She said: “The children are more open and interested and easier to talk to and when you are working in a diabetes clinic you have the same children coming back every two or three weeks. They look out for you, they say they have been talking about it since their last visit and they want another story or poem.
“On the children’s ward one little girl who we first met in the day room went back to her bed and wanted another story. Then we went to another room and were reading to her friend and she came in for yet another one. She kept positioning herself where we were working. You get the feeling that you are making a difference quickly.”
Library Link is now looking to add to its army of volunteers from across Hull and East Yorkshire who read to patients and their visitors, some from even further afield, at Hull Royal Infirmary.
Mary Fox
One volunteer from the Driffield area told how she inspired a conversation between three generations of one family after she found a woman in one of the wards for elderly patients initially sitting in silence with her daughter and granddaughter.
Elaine Pearson, a former Hull College tutor from Anlaby, added a new dimension to the service when she introduced herself to a patient who said she only wanted to sing. Elaine was quickly joined by a fellow volunteer and colleague from the Ladies in Red choir.
She said: “We sang some 1940s songs and the lady started singing with us. Then the other ladies joined in and it was lovely. It’s amazing and I am always buzzing when I come out. The elderly people have so much to offer. Sometimes their stories have me in tears and sometimes I’m laughing so much I don’t know when to stop. I get as much out of this as they do.”
Chris Shakesby, a former IBM project manager who lives at Sigglesthorne, told how his visits to read to patients at the eye hospital helped him come to terms with a difficult situation of his own.
He said: “I applied to do this because I have an aversion to hospitals and this took me out of my comfort zone and got me used to being in a hospital environment. I feel much better about them now.”
Elaine Pearson
Clare Bennett, Hull Libraries’ Hospitals Co-ordinator for Library Link, said more volunteers are welcome as the service expands, buoyed by support from the James Reckitt Library Trust and by the positive feedback.
She said: “We would love to hear from more people who are interested in joining Library Link. They should have an interest in engaging with people and enjoying conversation.
“A lot of people are nervous about reading out loud but we overcome that with comprehensive support and training including teaming up with people who have had the experience already. It’s almost always one to one and it’s just about reading to start a conversation.”