For Immediate Release Contact: Maryann Maslan (510) 444.4755 x112

January 22, 2007 E-mail: maryann@stagebridge.org

National Arts in Healthcare Grant Awarded to

Stagebridge Senior Theatre Company

OAKLAND, CA – Stagebridge’s theatre arts program aimed at improving student nurses’ care of geriatric patients was awarded a $17,000 grant by Johnson & Johnson/Society for the Arts in Healthcare.

The Johnson & Johnson/Society, based in Washington, D.C., granted the 2007 awards to 26 organizations in the United States and Canada for projects that help bridge the gap between illness and health. The new and innovative projects were singled out from more than 200 proposals for their use of art to advance healing and preventative health.

Stagebridge, the nationally acclaimed theatre company of older adults, based in Oakland since 1978, was named a “leading model” in healthcare training. Their “cutting edge” Healthy Aging Program uses acting, improvisation and storytelling as part of nurses training. It was created by Stagebridge to help nurses gain more understanding and compassion for older adults by putting seniors in the classroom. The training program also received Honorable Mention in the 2006 Blair L. Sadler International Healing Arts Competition.

“This is an experience that students cannot get from a lecture or reading assignments – how to confront their own bias, attitude and view on the aging process,” said Jennifer Winters, Assistant Professor at Samuel Merritt College, School of Nursing in Oakland.

Stagebridge’s Healthy Aging Program is in its third year at Samuel Merritt College.

“Witnessing older adults performing and improvising in a humorous way, breaks down the stereotypes regarding aging,” added Winters.

At the end of the each year of the program, the staff at Samuel Merritt conducts a written survey amongst the students to evaluate the experience. Student comments included hands-on lessons in compassion that gave them “a great deal more respect for the aging and their illnesses and what they go through.”

“We learned a lot from this class that we can put into action,” said future nurse Cassie Childers.

Stagebridge is the nation's oldest senior theatre company. Since its beginning, the company’s mission has been to make theater an opportunity for older people and to use theater to bridge the generations. The actors range in age from 50–90 years. The company has performed over 30 original plays for more than 250,000 people in senior centers, hospitals, retirement residences, schools, conferences and theaters throughout California and nationally. Stagebridge has been featured on ABC-TV, CNN, National Public Radio, and in Modern Maturity and the national Storytelling Magazine.

A recent survey by the Society for the Arts in Healthcare confirmed that the use of the arts help create a healing environment in patient care. The incorporation of the arts into healthcare settings is a growing trend backed by this and other research that shows increased mental and social functioning, reduced stress, anxiety and depression and decreased pain in patients suffering from serious conditions, such as cancer and HIV/AIDS.

For more information about Stagebridge, visit www.stagebridge.org or call 510.444.4755. Stagebridge is a non-profit organization. The Society for the Arts in Healthcare may be reached at www.thesah.org or call 202-299-9770.