HenPower for seniors


Improving well being

Creative ageing charity Equal Arts has launched HenPower at Rose Hill Court and Hyman Fine House retirement homes in the city. The project, which involves art activities as well as hen-keeping, aims to reduce depression and improve the wellbeing of residents. The launch day was attended by Councillor Mo Marsh, Deputy Mayor of Brighton and Hove.

Harnessing the imagination

Douglas Hunter, the co-director of Equal Arts, said: “HenPower moves away from the passive care you so often see in care settings and harnesses people’s imagination and interests to empower themselves. “It is fantastic to see care providers in Brighton taking on the project with such enthusiasm, bringing the benefits to more people and positively engaging with residents and their relatives.”

A collaborative venture

According to the charity, HenPower has brought benefits to residents at dementia care homes, with staff reporting reductions in the use of anti-psychotic medication. Equal Arts were awarded £1m of Big Lottery Funding to develop HenPower at care homes across the country. The charity has joined with Brighton & Hove City Council and Jewish Care to develop the project in the area and hopes to form partnerships with schools and the wider community.

Comments about this page

  • I love the photos and seeing the joy on people’s faces with the hens. As you get older you find you can’t do so many of the hobbies that you would like to keep on doing. Myself and my wife found this, so we started keeping hens a few years ago and they have been a joy. I built fox proof runs and coops. The enjoyment of the learning is immense, and watching the quirky chickens is so much fun. We still get a thrill every morning collecting eggs. We have two of our old lady hens left out of many. Only one of them is laying now. But last year we got ten Pekin bantams and three Rhode Island Red bantams. They were only eight weeks old, Peepies as we called them, as that is the sound they make at that age. They are laying now, lovely little eggs which we collect every morning. They are a comedy act on their own. They can be a bit flighty but on the whole they are very friendly and will sit on your lap and eat out of your hand. The other part of the article by Jennifer also rings a bell with me as I took up painting watercolours a couple of years ago which, once again, the learning was a big buzz for me. I am now progressing and learning to paint in acrylics, which I love. Riding our bikes is the physical bit as it is as flat as a pancake where I live on the Romney Marsh. All of that beats the hell out of watching the box for sure.

    By Mick Peirson (10/07/2016)

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