Global Brain Health Institute and Respond launch second in seminar series exploring brain health and housing.
The Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI), based at Trinity College Dublin and the University of California San Francisco, and Respond Housing will host the second in a series of seminars exploring brain health and housing today. The series aims to advance our understanding of brain health as it applies to housing design, care provision and homeless services. Provost Linda Doyle, Trinity College Dublin, will open the seminar, titled Creativity, Connection, Community.
Creativity, Connection, Community will explore how we can use creativity as a tool for building and sustaining brain healthy communities. Speakers will examine how the arts can play a major role in bolstering brain health through creating community and easing isolation and loneliness as well as how we can incorporate these ideas into design and planning. Aine Kerr, journalist and co-founder of Kinzen, will chair the event.
The keynote speakers and panellists are:
- Dominic Campbell, Director Creative Ageing International and Atlantic Fellow, GBHI
- Alexandra Coulter, Director National Centre for Creative Health
- Ray Yeates, City Arts Officer, Dublin City Council
- Magda Kaczmarska, Teaching Artist and Atlantic Fellow, GBHI
- Karen Meenan, Director Lewy Body Ireland, PPI & Communications Co-ordinator, Dementia Trials and Atlantic Fellow, GBHI
- Jess Majekodunmi, Director, Human Sciences Studio, Accenture
“At GBHI, we embrace creativity as a positive force for brain health across the life span. Embedding creativity and creative practices in our built environment can improve our wellbeing, mental health and sense of connection. This webinar begins the conversation about how we can achieve better brain health by activating and amplifying our own creative processes where we live, work and play”.
Professor Brian Lawlor, Deputy Executive Director of GBHI and Conolly Norman Chair in Old Age Psychiatry at Trinity College.
Niamh Randall, Spokesperson for Respond, said Respond are keen to share the learnings of their partnership with others.
‘Respond provide social housing to over 12,000 tenants across the 26 counties. We are also a service provider of homeless services, childcare services, daycare for older people, refugee resettlement and family support services. Respond is deeply committed to promoting the understanding of the connection between health, and housing and promoting brain health across the life cycle. Together with GBHI, we are building an evidence base to demonstrate the impact of community development and social activities on health outcomes. As part of this, Creativity, Connection, Community event, we will examine how we can use creativity as a tool for building and sustaining brain healthy communities. This is informed by the latest scientific evidence, led by the Global Brain Health Institute. This seminar is an opportunity for everybody who cares about brain health to learn how to practically apply this new knowledge to housing, to communities, to neighbourhoods and to your own health.’
Niamh Randall, Respond