A MEMBER of the Senedd brushed up on her painting prowess when she was given a colourful insight into how a care home uses art to enrich the lives of residents.
Wrexham MS Lesley Griffiths said she was thrilled to join an art class at Pendine Park’s Hillbury Care Home run by award-winning international illustrator Jason Bennion.
She had glowing praise for Pendine which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year.
It all started in 1985 when Mario Kreft MBE and his wife, Gill, opened their first care home in a converted Victorian villa Gwern Alyn, that’s next door to Hillbury.
Since then the couple have pioneered the use of art and music to enrich the lives of residents and staff alike in all their nine care homes in Wrexham and Caernarfon.
The art class held a painting session inspired by the poem The Sparrow by Paul Laurence Dunbar and Ms Griffiths’s work clearly impressed her classmates who presented her with an honorary membership of the group.
The MS said: “I enjoyed my art session very much, it’s not something I do very often, but it’s very therapeutic, and it was just so lovely to be able to sit and chat with people and have everybody coming together.
“I always think the arts are a great redeemer of life and everybody can enjoy it and sit and do a little bit of painting.
“It’s really important to use art and culture in everyday life where we can, it brings people together, it starts a conversation.”
Ms Griffiths, who is standing down as an MS at next year’s elections, said she had visited many care homes in her 18-year career as a Member of the Senedd and was constantly impressed by the work of staff.
She said: “The care sector is very treasured in Wales. People who work in the care sector are true professionals who we have a great deal to say thank you to.
“I always think care home staff care for our most precious things.
“Hillbury doesn’t feel like a care home as such, it feels like a loving home for the residents.”
“Care homes are part of the community, I have attended many garden fetes for example where the community comes in and takes part.”
Ms Griffith added: “Mario and Gill began 40 years ago, I actually knew them 40 years ago, and neither of them came from a care background so it’s just incredible for them to be celebrating 40 years.
“Every time you come into one of their care homes, there’s more improvement every time.
“I went to lots of care homes across Wales when I was Minister for Health and Social Services and, maybe I am biased, but I never went into one where they had the Halle Orchestra playing, where they had artists-in-residence, where they had musicians entertaining, and they have that at Pendine.
“Mario and Gill have raised the bar so much that others aspire to do things in a very similar way.”
Jason Bennion, a member of Pendine’s enrichment team, was delighted to welcome Lesley Griffiths to the art group and demonstrate how Pendine uses art and culture.
He said: “Hillbury has a lot of enrichment activities, and the response to the art classes has just been amazing.
“Everybody has just engaged with it fully, the residents, the staff, the management, and the residents just love it.
“And in the class itself, the residents just tell me continuously how much they enjoy it.
“Families come up to me and thank us for what we do because we post some of the artwork online and they say they love it.
“I get a lot out of it too, it is really rewarding.
“I am just so proud of them because they inspire me as much as I inspire them.”
Home manager Cindy Clutton said the enjoyment residents took from Pendine’s enrichment programme was “amazing”.
She said: “The residents get such a buzz when Jason comes in, he walks through the door and it’s like the Pied Piper. The stimulation they get from it is wonderful.”
Mario Kreft said arts and culture were at the centre of the ethos of Pendine Park’s drive to provide the best care possible to residents and he was delighted Lesley Griffiths was able to enjoy the painting class.
He said: “Lesley has been a huge supporter of what we have been doing in Wrexham, she knows what we are about and what we do.
“I think she has had an incredibly successful career since she was elected in 2007.
“We are committed in providing art as a means of improving the wellbeing of our residents and for people to fulfil their potential.
“This is obviously our 40th year now and we realised within the first few years the difference an enrichment programme made in the lives of our residents.
“The arts in all their forms can make such a difference and if you can lift somebody’s spirits in moments, minutes, whatever, in a day, that has got to be a good thing.
“The arts bring joy and it is important to bring that joy into social care.”
