COLLABORATION. For two years, the Nordic countries and Russia had a development collaboration in relation to healthcare. The collaborative program “Culture for Health” recently concluded with a conference in St. Petersburg. Annica Sjölander, research coordinator for the Centre for Culture and Health at the University of Gothenburg, summarizes the event and important experiences from the initiative.
The Culture for Health program, run by the Nordic Council of Ministers, has opened up opportunities to network, exchange knowledge and develop ideas and tools in the field of culture and health. The collaboration between the Nordic countries and Russia had many goals, including creating a sustainable interdisciplinary platform, calling attention to issues related to culture’s role in health when it comes to rehabilitating individuals with disabilities, and finding a joint pilot project.
There is interest in Russia for the Nordic work, where culture, among other things, has come to play an important role in healthcare. The development of training programs for healthcare professionals and for individuals working with culture – including those working with individuals with disabilities – has been an important focus area of the collaboration. Another has been organizing cultural events for healthcare management teams with a focus on preventing ill health as well as cultural events for other groups, such as individuals with disabilities, children and adolescents, and groups that are at-risk socially.
Broad perspective
The closing conference, held December 8–9, involved researchers and decision-makers from Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Russia. The theme for the morning of the first day was “Research on Culture and Health Care Interactions – Northern Dimension Perspective”. Vladimir Mikhailov, Head of Research at the St. Petersburg Psychoneurological Research Institute, kicked things off with a retrospective on the theme medicine, art and neuroscience. Karolinska Institutet and Stockholm University then presented their collaboration on how culture can be used to contribute to sustainable healthcare and a sustainable society. Eva Bojner Horwitz, MD and Cultural Researcher, highlighted the importance of social sustainability in a cultural and global perspective. Psychologist Alexander Kolesin also discussed his work with art therapy at the St. Petersburg State Psychiatric Rehabilitation Center for Children.
The theme for the afternoon was “Innovative Practices in Social Spehre – Challenges and Success Stories”. Anna Eskola, Director of the Rinnekoti Foundation in Finland, presented organizations that focus on individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities, including rare and genetic diseases. Other participants included Irina Donina of the State Museum of the History of Religion and Lilia Ostania, a psychologist at the State Library for the Blind and Visually Impaired. They discussed their exhibition work for visitors who are blind, deaf or have somatosensory issues.
Interdisciplinary initiatives
Right from the first day of the conference, it became apparent that major initiatives have been undertaken in the area, but it was not always easy to secure funding for interdisciplinary collaborations. Our own presentation addressed this very type of collaboration, which came about when Sahlgrenska Academy and the Faculty of Fine, Applied and Performing Arts at the University of Gothenburg worked with businesses in the City of Gothenburg. I and my colleague Linda Sternö, from Valand Academy, presented our project in the morning. The project focuses on collecting the elderly’s perspective on aging and their experiences of what it takes to achieve quality of life. The work was based in part on an artistic method involving elderly individuals filming and photographing everyday events, environments and situations. It also involved interviewing the elderly to get their experiences of what it is like to grow older.
The second day of the conference involved study visits to some of the organizations working with culture and health in St. Petersburg. The first destination was the St. Petersburg State Psychiatric Rehabilitation Center for Children, where they work with methods such as art therapy, which can involve using artistic creation to express and communicate something that would otherwise be difficult to talk about. The next destination was the State Library for the Blind and Visually Impaired and their upcoming exhibition of Nikolai Gogol’s novel Dead Souls. To ensure individuals with visual impairment were not left out, they also created a tactile interaction exhibition. With this, visitors could access the book purely using the physical exhibits – using just their hands and sense of touch, they could identify the various exhibits that symbolize characters in the book.
Potentials and challenges
To summarize my impressions of the closing conference for Culture and Health, there is a lot of innovative work in this field in the Nordic countries and Russia. There is also a desire for more collaboration between different academic disciplines, as well as between academia and other businesses and organizations in the community. At the same time, the work in this field faces many challenges.
From the perspective of my field of interest, initiatives focused on the elderly were conspicuously absent from the conference. With the exception of one project about end-of-life care, the majority of the Russian projects related to children and adolescents. We were told that there had previously been individual initiatives targeting health and quality of life of the elderly. It is my hope that our research serves as inspiration and such work is resumed.
What will the future bring? Sweden and Russia have a long history of collaborating in the field of health. This collaboration has now been expanded to include participation from other Nordic countries. The work to create a joint interdisciplinary platform for healthcare development has made quite a bit of progress and there are opportunities for intensified collaboration – an area where we think Sweden can contribute valuable experience and knowledge.
ORIGINAL TEXT: ANNICA SJÖLANDER
About Culture for Health
The Culture for Health collaborative program was the initiative of the Nordic Council of Ministers.
The Higher School of Economics of the National Research University in St. Petersburg handled administration of the work.
The main partners are the St. Petersburg city government, the Committee for Culture and the Healthcare Committee (the politically responsible and administrative organization for healthcare), the Baltic Region Healthy Cities Association, the University of Gothenburg through the Centre for Culture and Health, Uppsala University and the Center for Social Sustainability at Karolinska Institutet.
Other partners include the Institute of Cultural Programs in St. Petersburg, Samfundet Folkhälsa in Finland, the Consulate General of Finland in St. Petersburg, the Danish Embassy in Moscow, Region Skåne, the Psychoneurological Research Institute in St. Petersburg, the St. Petersburg State Library for the Blind and Visually Impaired and the State Psychiatric Center for Children in St. Petersburg.
