Many wonderful resources about the arts and dementia have come my way this week.
Here's a link to an article by Kate Jackson, Expressive Therapies for People With Alzheimer’s and Related Dementias, in January /February 2014 issue of Social Work Today. In it Kate interviewed myself along with 2 other dance/movement therapists and 2 art therapists.
"The primal response to certain forms of creative communication remains intact in individuals with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, even when memory, language, and cognition are impaired. Creative arts therapies help make the most of these abilities."
And
“Even when someone is not responsive to music, a dance/movement therapist can continue to reach that person through movement and nonverbal communication,” Newman-Bluestein says. “Dance in particular often taps into muscle memory and may even evoke reminiscences of joyous occasions in the past,” adds Andrea Koch, MA, ATR, LPC, manager of life enrichment and creative arts therapy at the Lieberman Center.
Creative Dementia Network operates in the UK. Their 3rd Creative Dementia Conference will be 8th April 2014 ! How I wish we would have such a conference here in the US - not a local one, but one that brings together arts therapists and those who bring the arts to folks with dementia throughout the country. The conversations we could have, things we could learn from one another!!!
Speaking of which, in Britain, there is a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Travelling Fellowship which provides the Fellow with the opportunity to travel to learn from what's happening in other cultures/countries pertinent to their work. Here is a report by Bisakha Sarker, the 2013 Fellow who shares what she learned by traveling through Canada about current practice in the field of dance and older people. She also created "Fleeting Moment", a dementiafriendly performance. This quotation from the report is particularly inspiring,
"As you said more than once, you cannot cure illness but you can use dance and the arts to draw people away from their suffering, give them a sense of connectedness rather than isolation and a feeling of mastery in situations where they are vulnerable and feel that they have lost control. You showed us how you raise awareness of dementia and make those with dementia participators in rather than observers of the arts. Particularly meaningful was your discussion of creating performances that are “dementia friendly” and welcome all who want to attend and take part".
- Virginia Wesson, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto
Dance/movement therapy friend and colleague Heidi Ehrenreich had a busy week in the media. I saw a video where she was sharing some props to use to exercise in groups with older adults. She'd intended to use the Octaband, but they shortened her time. I'm not sure why the link to the video is no longer working, but the segment was called Movement Therapy in Chairs! MyMassAppeal.com . There is also an article about Heidi who brings her wonderful work to children with autism and their families as well as older adults - across the lifespan.
Can Music, Dance, and Other Arts Programs Enhance Healthy Aging? is an online article by Roscoe Nicholson published on January 22, 2014. The source for this article is Noice T, Noice H, and Kramer AF. Participatory arts for older adults: a review of benefits and challenges. The Gerontologist. (2013). DOI: 10.1093/geront/gnt138 .
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