From the City to the Sea: An immersive journey to support care home staff wellbeing

A Southampton sociologist, pianist and artist has combined her skills to co-create - with care home staff - a nature-themed art and music video to support wellbeing.

Cindy Brooks, Research Fellow at the University of Southampton, has co-produced the ’time-out’ video in recognition of the contribution that busy care home staff give to society.

She worked with Turner Sims Southampton , John Hansard Gallery and the university’s Health and Wellbeing Community Hub.

takes the viewer on a journey ’From the City to the Sea’, shown through Cindy’s colourful and eye-catching paintings, and accompanied by music she composed and played on the piano.

Cindy said: "I wanted to co-create something specifically with and for care home staff to recognise their contribution and support wellbeing, as well as provide a resource for residents and family members."

She co-created the video through an online workshop with a group of care home staff from four UK-based care homes, who informed the choice of imagery and music and provided quotes of their experiences of engaging with nature, music and art.

Cindy added: "I hope this resource will help to recognise the value of art and music to wellbeing. Art and music aren’t specific to certain individuals - they are important to everyone’s wellbeing, and they are important to inclusivity and bringing us together."

She is keen to hear people’s views on the video and is running a survey to collect feedback.

It is the third wellbeing video resource that Cindy has co-created. The second, A Walk in the Park , was released in December 2022.