Arts and Health
translated by CREAT from author: Mario Girard, LaPresse
source: https://www.lapresse.ca/arts/chroniques/2024-02-03/meme-virtuel-l-art-ameliore-la-sante.php
I’ve got my hands on a very interesting study, to be unveiled this week, on the impact of art on the elderly. Basically, it shows that simple virtual visits to a museum, during which people are exposed to art, have a direct and positive effect on their health.
Mario Girard – LaPresse
The project that the researchers set up is based on a social innovation approach, a process whereby partners from different sectors pool their expertise, skills and resources to tackle societal challenges such as the social isolation of the elderly.
In our case, this innovation, which brought together the Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal (MBAM), the AgeTeQ laboratory of the Centre de recherche de l’institut universitaire de gériatrie de l’Université de Montréal, the Association des guides bénévoles and other partners, took the form of guided tour cycles at the MBAM with small groups of participants, a number of whom came from Montreal’s Chinese community.
Social isolation is a serious problem. Older people living alone in urban areas with a low socio-cultural level are more exposed to social isolation. The resulting sense of loneliness and discomfort, both mental and physical, leads to personal fragility.
The proportion of Canadians aged 65 and over who say they suffer from social isolation is high: between 20% and 30% of this group, or around 1.5 million people. Quebec is one of the fastest-aging provinces in Canada. It therefore needs to implement “actions to fight against – that is, avoid, delay or slow down – the social isolation of seniors”, reads the research report.
Initially, in 2019, these guided tours were to take place face-to-face in the galleries of the MBAM. But COVID-19 changed all that. The researchers and partners agreed to conduct the tours virtually.
The cycles lasted three months. One 45-minute visit per week was scheduled. Each group consisted of six or seven participants, no more. An optional additional 15-minute period was provided for discussion after the visit.
Each visit was different and supervised by an MBAM guide. The virtual tours were a combination of live interaction with the guide, sometimes in front of an image or video of a work of art.
Before diving into these tour cycles, participants were asked to complete questionnaires that enabled researchers to learn more about the social isolation, well-being, quality of life, frailty and sociogeriatric vulnerability they were experiencing.
Participants were reassessed at the end of the third month using questionnaires. Individual interviews were also conducted with participants, guides and other collaborators. The results clearly demonstrated that the MBAM’s three-month cycle of virtual tours had “multidimensional beneficial effects” on the elderly participants. “Social isolation decreased and physical and mental health improved significantly,” reads the report.
“There are many studies that deal with this subject, but there is not a sufficient scientific level to demonstrate these effects,” Olivier Beauchet, full professor of geriatric medicine at Université́ de Montréal and principal investigator of this study, explained to me. That’s what we did, with all the complexity that implies.”
What’s fascinating is that the constraints imposed by COVID-19 have given a new dimension to the researchers’ work.
Today’s virtual world has the effect of isolating the individual in a world that doesn’t exist. What we need to do is use the vocabulary of people who are today in the virtual world to bring them back into the face-to-face world through a common vector. That’s what we’ve done.
Olivier Beauchet
The study, which was the subject of an article in the journal Frontiers in Medicine (there was a record number of downloads of the text), is already snowballing. They have created a guide outlining a methodology for others to develop and implement, in a cultural setting, an “effective and efficient virtual guided tour cycle offer [reserved] for seniors”. This guide will be offered free of charge to anyone wishing to launch this type of initiative in their area. There is also an international consortium of museums, laboratories and professionals who continue to explore this area.
This study shows that, even in virtual mode, art retains its mysterious and inexplicable power. And that this power can replace many drugs.