Dr. Rebecca Barnstaple Researches Arts-Based Support for People with Parkinson’s Disease

Dr. Rebecca Barnstaple, leader of the University of Guelph’s new Bachelor’s Degree Program in Creative Arts, Health and Wellness (BCAHW), former IICSI Postdoctoral Fellow (2024-2025), and current member of IICSI’s Improvising Futures team, is spearheading a research project that addresses health care gaps for people with Parkinson’s Disease (PD).

 

With a range of benefits for people with neurodegenerative conditions such as Parkinson’s, collaborative dance and other embodied creative practices can help slow the progress of the condition while also providing a social and creative outlet for those it affects. It also provides benefits for those awaiting diagnosis of PD: with an average wait time of eleven months, during which they may receive no treatment or incorrect treatment, people awaiting diagnosis are often left isolated and anxious, and thus in need of the sort of support that a collaborative arts-based program can provide.

 

Dr. Barnstaple’s project will support quality of life for people with Parkinson’s by creating the first national resource hub for people with PD, providing access to community resources and “arts prescribing” for health care professionals. Through this hub, health care providers can connect people to non-medical programs, including arts-based ones. 

 

A virtual link worker will refer people with Parkinson’s to specific arts-based programs, a necessary role given that physicians often lack the time and knowledge necessary to navigate the community connections associated with arts prescribing and non-medical programs. Additionally, in collaboration with the Canadian Open Parkinson’s Network (C-OPN), the project will provide access to consenting participants’ clinical outcomes for researchers seeking insight into the impact of dance and other creative activities on standardized health outcomes. This unique model could be applied to other diseases as well.

 

Speaking about the project and the (BCAHW) program—the first of its kind in Canada—Dr. Barnstaple highlights the importance of improvisation in healthcare: “You have to be willing to improvise and create. There is an art to health practice.