Lack of community engagement in end-of-life issues and age-segregation in Swedish society motivated us to develop Studio D€ oBra, a community-based intergenerational arts initiative to support community engagement in end-of-life issues and develop intergenerational meeting places. Representatives from several community organizations formed a project group with first author MK, to develop Studio D€ oBra. Based on analysis of exploratory interviews with professionals involved in other, similar initiatives and data from Studio D€ oBra development, we discuss challenges related to power dynamics in developing initiatives to engage communities in end-of-life issues, and how these can inform the development of similar initiatives.
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Talking about dying, death, and loss may be difficult. Arts offer alternative ways of engaging with end-of-life (EoL) issues, but little is known about the means through which this occurs. In this article, we aim to explore mechanisms in arts activities that support community engagement with EoL issues, based on the community-based participatory action research project Studio DöBra. Studio DöBra was developed to support community engagement with EoL issues through intergenerational arts workshops involving community partners, children, and older adults. Initial analysis with community partners indicated the importance of play elements in arts activities. Continued analysis was therefore abductive, using play theory and qualitative data from Studio DöBra arts activities. Through iterative examination of theory and data, we modified play theory as we identified mechanisms supporting community engagement with EoL issues in arts activities. Findings can contribute to theory-building that can inform arts activities supporting community engagement with EoL issues.
In this article, we explore the perspectives of 13–15-year-olds living in Sweden about the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, through inductive analysis of 187 of their drawings. Through reconstructive serial picture analysis, three types of meaning were derived: (1) A new normal in dystopian scenery points to the disruption of daily life and development of new praxis and meaning in a context of threat and restriction; (2) Disrupted relationships refers to these adolescents’ self-portrayal as solitary, without adult guidance or friends prominent; and (3) Negative emotions and compliant behaviors addresses a range of negative emotions and expressions of loss with few proactive strategies illustrated. General existential distress appears in these drawings, seemingly compounded by both developmental stage and other factors in addition to the pandemic context. Drawings suggest a restricted repertoire of ways of dealing with challenges confronting these adolescents, who seemed to feel left to their own resources.
: This presentation is based on our reflections as two designers entering palliative care, one working with supportive environments for death and dying and one working with issues related to health-promoting palliative care. Death, dying and mourning are important universal conditions that raise existential thought and reflection. The focus of care is different here than in most other areas, as it is not about curing, and values go beyond medical perspectives. Thus, if we want to support meaningful experiences related to dying, it is necessary to look beyond institutional structures and disciplinary divisions. The practice of design has begun to move away from a primary concern with the commercial realm, to instead be used as a method to approach complexity to incrementally improve situations. A key aspect of this is to design with those concerned rather than for them. We argue that design related to contextual change requires an immersion within that context. An essential feature of design is making, and so, drawing on this disciplinary background, we iteratively try theories out, working towards minimising the gap between theory and practice. This approach, applied in a sensitive setting, has the potential to result in insights relevant in the particular situation, as well as offering transferable design methods. Convinced that the intersection of design and palliative care offers opportunities for both sectors, we will present concrete examples from our interdisciplinary research group, to talk about the opportunities and challenges of our work.
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