Tag: adult carer

Meet Yvette, from our project with anthropologie

Posted on January 25, 2023 by - Stories

creative:me anthropologie islington

Meet Yvette, from our project supported by anthropologie

Photo by Alex Mooney

creative:me is Create’s programme in partnership with Anthropologie. In November and December 2022, we ran projects inspired by Anthropologie’s Christmas theme of “sparkling joy”.

As part of creative:me, adult carers from Islington took part in six, weekly visual art workshops with our professional artist Rachel McGivern. The project aimed to ignite adult carers’ imaginations, offer them an escape from everyday life and a break from their responsibilities, and help them connect with others.

Adult carer Yvette told us about her experiences.

“I moved back to London for my elderly mum about eight years ago. She is 82 and although she hasn’t been diagnosed with dementia, she’s very forgetful and she just couldn’t look after herself. Particularly since the pandemic she’s taken quite a downturn in her capabilities and her confidence levels.

“She relies on me for quite a lot. She’s stopped driving, so I do all the driving. I do the cooking and the cleaning and I look after her. Before, I used to be able to go away for a night and she’d be able to heat herself up some soup, but I think that’s beyond her now. She becomes more dependent on me as we go along.

“My mum’s quite needy and if I wasn’t strict with my boundaries, she would take all of my time and energy. Making time for myself has been the biggest challenge: setting my boundaries and maintaining them. It’s one thing to set them, but to maintain them constantly is the daily challenge.

“It’s nice to have time that’s just mine”


Photo by Alex Mooney

“Taking on caring responsibilities has changed my lifestyle. I work from home, which I actually really enjoy. However, I’m an introvert. I like one-on-one [interaction] with my friends and I used to go out a lot more to meet with friends and do more social things. I only do that once every couple of weeks at the most for an afternoon or an evening now. I’m much more housebound. It’s changed my life massively.

“It’s really nice to have a bit of the week that’s just mine. [The project] is a really nice environment, it’s a little outing every week I look forward to. “We’ve been doing lino printing, which has been brilliant. I’ve really enjoyed it. We’ve been printing onto fabric and painting and making lavender eye bags out of some of that fabric. I’ve learnt that it’s a step by step thing and it’s really effective. I’ve done it before but it was so many moons ago.

“When you’re at school, you’re in the habit of doing weird and interesting things in your art class but when you’re older you forget to do new things. It’s good for the brain health. I like meeting people. I really like the facilitators, I think they’re all really lovely. They’re gentle and focused, and they’re really good at confidence building. I think the group format works really well too.

I’ve worked with Create before and I’ve got a little portfolio of stuff I’ve done. It gives me a sense of wellbeing and inspires me.”

Yvette, adult carer

“I get creatively stimulated”

“I am really pleased with the work I did on lino, I get a really strong sense of satisfaction. I’ve worked with Create before and I’ve got a little portfolio of stuff I’ve done and it’s really nice to look back over it. It gives me a sense of wellbeing and it inspires me. I get creatively stimulated, I find that I go home and I’m ticking over in a way that I wasn’t ticking over before, so it will just fire up ideas. I’ll go home with my weird print and then I’ll want to make it into Christmas cards or I’ll want to make gift tags out of it or something. This year was the first year I’ve made Christmas cards in about six years and I know that it’s partly to do with feeling inspired by Create.

“Projects like this help because they allow me to have that time that’s just about me. I come back refreshed and ready to go again. It’s a bit of a recharge, a reset. Just that little moment out of each week gives me time where I’m not thinking about mum’s food or the next meal or whether she’s got clean pyjamas. I’m not thinking about any of her needs. I’m just thinking about running stitch.”

creative:me Islington was supported by Anthropologie. You can learn more about our partnership here.

Meet Cindy, an adult carer from Harrow

Posted on January 25, 2023 by - Stories

creative:voices ceramics harrow

Meet Cindy, an adult carer from Harrow

creative:voices is Create’s multi-artform programme that enables adult carers to take a creative break from their caring responsibilities, build trusting relationships with their peers and develop communication skills, new interests and confidence.

During September and October 2022, carers from Harrow took part in six, weekly ceramics workshops with our professional artist Amy Leung.

Adult carer Cindy (61) told us about her experiences.

Adult carer Cindy and Create artist Amy Leung working with clay on our creative:voices Harrow ceramics project.

“My two younger children, a 20-year-old and a 15-year-old, are both on the autistic spectrum. My 15-year-old has severe learning development and my older child is autistic but he’s high functioning and savant. Both of them have poor social skills and find it very difficult, they don’t have friends because they’re different.

“My 20-year-old also has Type 1 diabetes and I micro-manage his condition for him. I had to give up work as a school nurse because my son’s school couldn’t cope with it. I don’t get much sleep. I’m up in the middle of the night checking his diabetes because he injects about six or seven times a day. I have to weigh all of his food and calculate his insulin, so it’s pretty exhausting but it’s what I have to do and they’re my kids. I love them and I enjoy doing it, even if I’m tired.

“Projects like this help carers to meet one another because we are isolated in what we do.”

cindy, adult carer

making creativity accessible

“Taking on caring responsibilities has changed my life immensely. We don’t have much money. I’ve gone from a good wage to a carer’s allowance. It’s very hard.

“Projects like this help [carers] to meet one another because we are isolated in what we do. We’re at home a lot of the time, and because we have very little money, some of us can’t go out and socialise. It costs a lot of money to take care of children who have disabilities. Therefore, projects like this one are perfect. If I’d had to pay for it I’d really have thought twice. When I found out the project was free, I was amazed.

“The project was ceramics. We used self-hardening clay, which is brilliant because you can see the results immediately and you get a real sense of achievement. I didn’t have much experience in ceramics before. I did a little bit with my kids when I was younger, but I’ve enjoyed this more because I’m doing it for myself.

emptying our stress buckets

“I’ve enjoyed the whole experience, especially being with other people and doing a project that doesn’t mean we’re talking about our loved ones that we care for all of the time, because that doesn’t define us as people. It’s been good just talking utter rubbish. We talk about art in general, as well.

“We’ve just come into Diwali so we’ve been talking about the celebration and enjoying each other’s differences. We made diva candleholders, and the Hindu women’s painting designs on theirs were beautiful.

“Everyone got on really well and we were all encouraging each other. When you’re a carer you don’t feel you get that recognition, but here we’re all patting each other on the back. The workshop leaders have been great, very patient, very encouraging, making us feel like we’re fantastic at what we’re doing, even though we doubt ourselves. As each week has gone on, we’ve all progressed and got more confidence. You’re so engrossed in what you’re making, you tend not to dwell on the negative aspects of your life as a carer. You’re having fun, you’re in a different place and I think that’s the main objective. The project has taught me that I need to do something at home when I get time so I’m not obsessing about things that are going on in my life, with my kids, and myself and my limitations. Rather, I can do stuff if I just put my mind to it. I think it’s very important to be creative because we are such stress buckets, and I think we just need to empty our mind sometimes. We all have that potential to be creative, everybody does, no matter what it is that you’re creating.”

This project is funded by The Smiles Fund, awarding funds from Walkers and Comic Relief.