About Hearts & Minds
Hearts & Minds is the home of the Clowndoctors and Elderflowers programmes in Scotland.
Getting started
Hearts & Minds was cofounded by Morven McLean and Magdalena Schamberger, our Artistic Director, in 1997. Magdalena, a performer and theatre director by profession and an Austrian by birth, was aware of Clowndoctor programmes in Europe and was inspired to begin one in Scotland. She developed and launched the Scottish programme in 1999 using influences from the work of the Big Apple Circus in New York, Rote Nasen in Austria and Le Rire Médecin in France.
Successes and developments
With the success of the programme and its work with children, Magdalena was encouraged to start the Elderflowers programme in 2001. Using similar clowning principles, this unique programme developed work with ward-based dementia patients. In developing this ground-breaking work Hearts & Minds was greatly helped by the Dementia Services Development Centre at Stirling University. Hearts & Minds aims to continue the expansion of the Elderflowers programme across Scotland and to remain at the forefront of this important approach to dementia care as new programmes develop all over the world.
Ongoing commitment and innovation
Hearts & Minds is committed to developing practices within our core programmes that expand the reach and benefits of both Clowndoctors and Elderflowers. For example, Magdalena developed a technique for Clowndoctors called Special Branch. This is specifically for children with life-limiting illnesses or complex special needs in hospice or respite care who have conditions that may benefit from specialised activities using touch, light and sound. Songlines is another area of new activity - music and storytelling activities that have been developed for children who are blind or visually impaired, or who have brain injuries. Songlines activities and the Special Branch approach have now become part of the core Clowndoctors repertoire. Other projects have followed as our scope continues to grow, such as working with children with physical or behavioural difficulties and with teenagers.
How we've grown
Hearts & Minds began with 6 clowns visiting 5 hospitals. Some 10 years later we have 15 Clowndoctors and 10 Elderflowers who visit 18 different units and numerous wards enabling us to engage with a participative audience of up to 14,000 people each year, including children, the elderly, and their families.
