Innovation: HenPower project

United Kingdom

AAI Domains:

• Independent, healthy and secure living (mental well-being)

• Participation in society (social connectedness)

Improving the health and well-being of older people in residential care can be challenging, particularly for older men who are usually less likely to engage with social activities compared to older women. Whilst women continue to have longer life expectancy than men and are the majority of the residential care home population, male life expectancy is increasing at a faster rate leading to an ever growing number of older men. There is a pressing need to develop social innovations that particularly appeal to older men in residential care.

HenPower is an innovative project developed by Equal Arts, a third sector organisation based in Gateshead in the north east of England, in collaboration with residential care homes across the region. The basis for the project is the appeal of hen-keeping, a form of animal assisted therapy, that is recognised as having health and well-being benefits for people of all ages and was an activity that particularly appealed to older men. Many older men had kept hens when they were younger and those that had not showed an interest in learning a new skill.

With initial funding of £160,000 from the National Lottery’s Silver Dreams programme, Equal Arts worked in partnership with residential care homes and older people, to introduce hens into suitable outdoor settings in the grounds of care homes. The underlying ethos of the project is empower older people by providing purposeful and enjoyable activities that would reduce social isolation and improve health and well-being.

The project started in 2011 as a pilot and was deemed to be highly successful by the older participants and residential care home staff who noticed marked improvements among those involved with the project – Hensioners. HenPower was rolled out across more than 20 residential care homes in the north east of England and involved several hundred older people who interacted with the hens and each other on a daily basis. Hen road shows were developed so that older people could visit schools with their hens to share their experiences with school children.

A 12 month long evaluation of the project by academics from the University of Northumbria showed that participants had reduced levels of depression and loneliness and there had been a reduction in the use of anti-psychotic medication over the period. After this initial success in the north east, a further £1 million grant was awarded so that HenPower could operate in residential care homes across England.

Residential care homes that demonstrated a viable plan for keeping hens are awarded seed funding for 6 months to establish the project and are then expected to raise funds to maintain its operation. There are now more than 40 residential care homes across England that have successfully engaged with the HenPower project with more than 1,000 older people, mostly but not only men, having taken part in the activities of the project. The project has been seen on national television with the ‘Henmen’ providing a positive image of older people through the activities involved in HenPower.

In relation to the active ageing index, HenPower builds social connections through encouraging and enabling older people to work together to care for chickens. This improves mental well-being by reducing social isolation and loneliness than can often lead to depression among older people in residential care home settings.

For some ‘hensioners’ their involvement in the project involving learning new skills (if they had never kept hens in the past) or reviving old skills that had not been used for many years. The successful implementation of HenPower depends on voluntary activity to start the project with a suitable hen house and raising funds to maintain the operation of the project after initial funding comes to an end.

Websites

Equal Arts

Equal Arts final report (PDF, 995KB)

The Guardian