Newman completes research agreement with universities and hospital in Australia

Newman University have recently completed paperwork to have a research partnership agreement with UNSW Sydney, Griffith University Film School, and the Queensland Children’s Hospital in Australia.

The project is a pilot entitled ‘Future Stories’ and is being led by Professor Michael Balfour from UNSW Sydney. Dr Persephone Sextou from Newman University is one of the Chief-investigators in this project contributing to the partnership with her arts-based participatory research model of bedside theatre for children in hospital. Persephone has completed research within this area for many years and leads on the CADLab Research Hub initiative at Newman University, which works with the Children’s Hospital in Birmingham, NHS Trust.

‘Future Stories’ is an Arts and Health project that aims to explore the potential outcomes of engaging children and their community of carers with virtual reality (VR) experiences in hospital contexts.

The pilot study engaged with children who have extended stays at Queensland Children’s Health in Brisbane Australia. The study draws on ethical and imaginative responses to the arts and health context and explores the innovative capacity of VR experiences to be meaningful in the children’s making of ‘future stories’.

Dr Sextou commented, “I am so privileged to be part of such an engaging team of arts and health researchers. Future Stories is an innovative and much needed research project. It gives hospitalised children with long-life conditions and their families agency and legacy through VR immersive technologies and creative storytelling experiences. Every child is special and every story is different. In the pilot study of Future Stories, I have learned that the marriage of arts with technology in health can help us understand the ways children can be Ok in uncertainty during illness.”

For further information on the research project visit the Paste Page.