Title of the project: Medicinema: “The magic of cinema & culture become therapy”

Please describe your action/project

Medicinema is a project reference to the socialization and the development of human capital, using film and culture for the purpose of therapy within hospitals and health resorts. The project intends to promote and enhance the movie watching experience as both ‘culture’ and ‘therapeutic’, setting up real digital cinemas aimed to the purpose of the filmic vision and fruition of the cultural content. The activities proposed by Medicinema, both inside the hospital and outside, could become a useful service to cities community’ and to the national territory.

Tell us something more about your project/activity:

Medicinema Italy is an innovation project aimed at protecting and improving the quality of life of patients in the hospital by promoting the experience of watching movies and activities related to culture, offering relief therapy.
The cinema therapy creates psychologically a’ pause effect ‘, that reduces the perception of pain . The neuroscience has shown that watching a film physically creates a state of well-being, in terms of neurological effect.
The project intends to promote and enhance the movie watching experience as both ‘culture’ that ‘therapeutic’, setting up real digital cinemas.
Decades of experience in England have shown that the constant application of a therapeutic program of relief, achieved through the creation of film festivals, targeted and declined on the different types of patients involved, has been of considerable effectiveness and usefulness in mitigating pain perception and in the context of the approach to the disease and therapy. The project promotes innovation on social inclusion and stimulates the citizen participation for the “quality of life-well being “ services.

The project objectives are:

Cultural: films will be carefully selected – based on the profile of people involved ; in each case with a focus on positive contents and relief.
It could be developed a real “ well being” film festival.
Artists, critics, actors, authors, intellectuals, musicians will be also involved to the screenings with the aim to further validate the emotional aspect of the event.
Therapeutic: the therapeutic-movie experience develops, through an emotional and psychological mechanism of relief, the normalization of the condition of pain and illness, that consolidated studies and research in the cinema therapy claim. Watching movies in a cinema devoted to patients, their parents and volunteers aims to socialize and share the illness. The ‘relief’ is not only for patients, but also has a positive impact on family members. Neuroscience has further validated this argument in terms of neuronal (neurocinematics)

Duration: from 03/15/2016 / ongoing
Location: Italy
Field/discipline: Social /health

Tell us something about who did it: individual(s), organization(s), formal, informal, their numbers, their role/skills, etc.

MediCinema is a non profit organization born in 2013 in Italy from the best practice of MediCinema UK, non profit org. since 1996. From its recent start it’s already recognized as the innovative social project that combines culture to the medical therapy for people and in hospital patients. The current organization is made of professionals and volunteers who are combining their experience from profit to a new concept of management on no profit organization. MediCinema consists of 2 offices; one in Milan and one in Rome and 15 people .The objective is to create further subsidiaries in different Italian regions to cover the most important public and private health structure with the cinematherapy service, and to offer a welfare service with activities targeted to the needs of vulnerable and disable people

Tell us something about the people who in your view received the most significant impact: who were they? How many of them?

The privileged recipients of the services provided will be the in-patients (and their families) of hospitals, nursing homes . The service provided will also benefit patients in post-hospitalization and day hospital, which will regain support of psychological continuity in attendance at Medicinema, along with other people. Citizens can instead use the service by going to the health facility with subscription programs. The health facility innovate therefore the concept of humanization “hospital as a center for social gathering with regard to the care of the welfare and quality of life.” In the short term the project will measure the positive effects (quality / improving mental and physical participants) of the service provided by the monitoring on hospitalized patients and their families and patients and family members in attendance after admission. In the medium term it will be possible to measure the positive result with the participation of citizens with mental problems at different levels (quantitative monitoring) thanks to the involvement of other care facilities. Further positive effects are the results of tests by medical and psychological studies on improving the state of the person at the neuronal level. We estimate to reach more than 2,5k people in 10 months in each structure where the program will be launched. We estimate to reach incremental 1k people attending in each structure the creative Laboratories

Was the impact planned from the start?

Yes. The strength of the project is represented by the value of its therapeutic purpose and the innovation of cinema and cuIture as therapeutic tools.
Additional social values planned have been the new concept of active citizen participation in activities ( creative laboratories) , the promotion of interaction between no-profit and profit organizations and the social value of the new company welfare

Tell us something about the context: recent history, social, economic and cultural features

Medicinema will promote activities of introductory workshops to the activities already carried out in hospitals, promoting the participation of district and developing training programs and participatory activities (art workshop / linguistic and literary / handicraft etc)) for young and old, volunteers and nurses, which will qualified for the new activities of the Association.
The place used for Medicinema activity , could become an important reference for the city district as the proximity to the hospital -nursing home, it is an important element and benefit to the entire social life of the district.
The monitoring is one of the cardinal principles of Medicinema, which wants to support the improvement of the participation of the district, offering social targeted activities (formative meetings / creative, exhibitions, etc) and projects of active solidarity The active participation of the district on issues such as culture, the relief and solidarity, are important levels of aggregation
Medicinema also makes ‘system’ with Universities, Doctors, and associations both cultural and social health to develop a network of active participation and opportunities for meetings on the benefit of the Cinematherapy, including art, music, solidarity and welfare.

Tell us what were your expected results and the actual ones

• 1) Improvement of the mental health of the hospitalized patient, even with a gradual reduction in the use of anti depressants or anti painkillers;
• 2) Increasing of citizen participation with increased attendance programs in the medium term;
• 3) input and participation of at least 2-profit companies for the construction of the social value of the project: company / town / program;
• 4) Training of staff involved in the program: the realization of the first training course for professionals programs.

Actual results are the launch and successful development of the program at Milan Niguarda Hospital and Humanitas. The next opening of the first movie theatre for therapy in one of the biggest italian hospital in Rome, Policlinico A. Gemelli, followed by 3 new opening in further structures based in the north of Italy

Tell us something about the most relevant resource inputs of your project/action: human, financial, organization, time

Financial: The significant costs of the project are the structural cost of the cinema theatre and the purchase of digital audio and video systems, necessary for the performance of Cinematherapy programs and creative laboratories. The association absorbs the administrative and management costs relating to the contents used for programs. Overhead costs are calculated as a percentage of the total project, Financial resources are fundamental to the completion of staff
Human: The organization is crucial because of the workload and the lack of dedicated people. Professionals need to be trained to the new job in correct manner and compensation.
Time: Timing is also crucial as the kind of activity need to be performed at full time. The development plan includes the opening of 3 structures per year

Tell us how you have attained the main change: challenges, innovation, obstacles, brilliant solutions, turning points, quantum leaps, etc.

The attitudinal change is connected to the offer itself and to the access to hospitals also for relief ,cultural activities and social gathering never offered before. The quality of service could be the vehicle to the replicability in other structures, by collecting the fragmentation of assistance, sometimes hard to find and use by the requesting parties. The collaboration with the institutions will be a further vehicle of innovation for public welfare of quality and efficiency. Socialization in the burden of disease and social problems, is an elements of care and quality of life.

Tell us the main area of impact of your project, i.e. a permanent or long lasting change in attitudes, awareness, behavior, conditions, economic status, income, occupation, perception, practice, quality of life, self-esteem, skills, social relations, etc. and for whom.

The main area of impact of the projects are:

Quality of life –
The Offer of therapy programs / relief for both hospitalization and nursing homes and in hospital post or for the district and the city to those who need psychological support or simply to improve personal well-being, with interception and prevention of need ;

Long lasting change-
Facilitate access to space for creative activities and therapies, to people with disabilities; provide additional proposal of welfare service, linking their service with other local associations (the project is a system);

Occupation-
Offer training programs for project activities, with development work inclusion for disability (enhancement of human capital);

Skills-
Develop the voluntary activities “qualified specialist” strengthening ties and investment in the process of mutual support and participation of the company to possible solutions (crowdsourcing);

Practice-
Improve the processes of service delivery offered by the use of new technologies (app / web / ICT platform etc);

Social Relations-
Develop the creation of relationships between proactive corporate welfare and territorial.

Which is the Big Idea behind your project/action?

The main idea of the project is the use of culture and cinema, as well as the technology to support therapy programs.
The creation of cinema spaces within hospitals and/or the places of care is an innovative concept and not yet fully exploited. The project aims to support the current request for assistance and psychological need to face different levels of desease, which are growing rapidly. The project also will support hospitals on the development of humanization protocols , in this case with the use of the innovation culture and cinema for therapeutic purposes.
The project also stands as a reference for care relationships and the management of social problems.