Art unlocks memories buried by dementia

Activities directors and other healthcare professionals here is a great dementia resource for caregivers and healthcare professionals.


Here is information on being the best caregiver you can be


Here is a way for nurses administrators, social workers and other health care  professionals to get an easyceu or two


Follow alzheimersideas on twitter

The Dementia Caregiver's Little Book of Hope [Kindle Edition]

Activities directors, other healthcare professionals and caregivers, another reason to use art therapy with those who have Alzheimer's and related dementias

DemocrarandChronicle.com
People disappear into dementia, losing their memories, their personalities, their ability to connect as they once did with spouses and children and the world around them.

Meet Me At The MAG" is a partnership between the Alzheimer's Association and the University of Rochester's Memorial Art Gallery aimed at helping them reconnect.

It is modeled after a successful and popular program at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, says Susan Daiss, the MAG's McPherson director of education.

"It's one of several things we're doing to integrate the visual arts and health care," she says, including a program that uses works of art to teach medical students to tap their powers of observation.

Meet Me At The MAG is one of those ideas that is so obviously promising you have to wonder why nobody thought of it long ago. "Museums are places of art," Daiss says, "and art is uniquely positioned to help unleash memories."

Sevev years ago, the gallery, with the help of medical students, ran a pilot program at an area nursing home, showing slides of artwork to patients with advanced dementia. "We saw enough to know this clearly could work," Daiss says.

So one day last month — a day when the gallery was otherwise closed to the public — several people with dementia and their caregivers were invited to visit the gallery. They were greeted by docents "trained to ask gentle questions such as 'What does this make you think of?'" Daiss says, "and then to follow the thread with further questions."

"One of the first paintings we saw was of two oak trees in Geneseo," says Joe Gersitz of Penfield, whose wife, Marion, has early-stage dementia. "Then we looked at a still-life of fruits and vegetables, with a girl sitting at a table crying from peeling onions." The art is meant to evoke emotions and tweak the senses, Gersitz says, and it did just that.

The art is carefully selected, Daiss says. "We look for works with a strong narrative content and the potential for association. We used a beautiful landscape of the Genesee River Valley by Asher B. Durand (a New York painter), and we used Norman Rockwell's Soldier on Leave from 1944. It shows a scene in a train where a number of couples are seated, but their faces are not visible. There is a young man in uniform, and there is a gardenia in the hair of a young woman." When the visitors looked at that painting, "the memories...............read the whole article

Easy movements for those with dementia

Activities directors and other healthcare professionals here is a great dementia resource for caregivers and healthcare professionals.


Here is information on being the best caregiver you can be


Here is a way for nurses administrators, social workers and other health care  professionals to get an easyceu or two


Follow alzheimersideas on twitter

The Dementia Caregiver's Little Book of Hope [Kindle Edition]

Looking for easy exercises for your residents. Here is a list. Attach familiar thoughts to them if you wish such as saying hello to you neighbor on your left or right for moving your head from side to side

Neck side to side

Shoulder shrugs

Bicep curls

Paddling a canoe

Tricep curls single

together

Climbing the ladder

Bent arm raises with a twist

Rowing a boat

Side arm raises

Front arm raises

Pour and hug

Hug yourself

Hand clapping

Punching

Swimming  front crawl

Breast stroke

Drum tapping

Windshield wipers

Chopping wood

Rocking a baby

Throwing a baseball

Throwing a basketball

Smiling

Saying the vowels

Waving a flag

Whole world

Hammering the weasel down

Hand rolling

Waves in the ocean

Head shoulders knees and knees

More about dementia tools

Activities directors, caregivers, and healthcare professionals,here is some great information

Here is a great dementia resource for caregivers and healthcare professinals,

Your residents will love the Amazon Kindle Fire

Here is information on being the best caregiver you can be

Here is a way for nurses administrators, social workers and other health care professionals to get an easyceu or two

Follow alzheimersideas on twitter

The Dementia Caregiver's Little Book of Hope [Kindle Edition]

What I did not say is that both these books are extremenly useful tools for CNAs

Here is what Vernessa LuShaun Burgess, CNA from Delray Beach, Florida had to say

The book was very insightful. I especially enjoyed the pictures that the staff
and family can use. They will help me communicate with the memory challenged and
provide a personal touch while I am doing it. The ideas were also very helpful
because they involve an involve people with all stages of dementia and can
easily be adapted for verbal and nonverbalindividuals. I give the book two
thumbs up.

Thus have several copies of each book around so they(the CNAs) will be able to engage dementia residents more easily

Also you may want to check out the post on May 30,Activities that ANYONE can do with a RESIDENT with or without dementia
Your comments, please

Simple Fan Craft

Activities directors, caregivers, and healthcare professionals,here is some great information

Here is a great dementia resource for caregivers and healthcare professinals,

Your residents will love the Amazon Kindle Fire

Here is information on being the best caregiver you can be

Here is a way for nurses administrators, social workers and other health care professionals to get an easyceu or two

Follow alzheimersideas on twitter

The Dementia Caregiver's Little Book of Hope [Kindle Edition]

Homemadesimple

Perfect for hot weather entertaining, our handmade paper fans are both stylish and functional. Create your own with our simple step-by-step instructions, then use them at your next celebration or as a sweet decorative touch indoors.

How to Make a Paper Fan
To get started, simply download and print a fan template of your choosing, then gather these materials and follow our easy instructions to assemble:

Materials
Cardstock, 8.5” x 11”
Scissors
Scrapbook paper, color(s) of your choice
Pencil
Craft stick
Tape
Glue stick

Simply cut out the template or for an even easier craft print o template that does not have to be cut out. Even easier use a colored paper plate or have the audience members decorate the plate beforing attaching it securely to a craft stick.

For the best results attach more than half of the crat stich to the plate leaving the rest as a handle.

Dementia tools

Activities directors, caregivers, and healthcare professionals,here is some great information

Here is a great dementia resource for caregivers and healthcare professinals,

Your residents will love the Amazon Kindle Fire

Here is information on being the best caregiver you can be

Here is a way for nurses administrators, social workers and other health care professionals to get an easyceu or two

Follow alzheimersideas on twitter

The Dementia Caregiver's Little Book of Hope [Kindle Edition]

Often staff and visitors do not know what to do after they say hello to persons with dementia.

Listed is a book that will solve this problem

One is Adorable Photographs of Our Baby-Meaningful Mind Stimulating Activities and More for the Memory Challenged, Their Loved Ones and Involved Professionals.It features baby pictures as a springboard for discussions about anything under the sun.

You may want to make copies of these songs to hand out to the residents, staff and visitors

Let me know what you think

Thanks for stopping by
Katie

Painting helps those with dementia

Caregivers.com

Obviously nobody paints or plays music 24/7. And it would be hard for a dementia caregiver to organize artsy activities all day long. But don't be too quick to think it's not for you. You don't have to be a sophisticated arts therapist or spend a lot of energy to reap the benefits:

1. Arts participation gives someone with dementia a sense of accomplishment and pleasure; the resulting positive emotions reverberate throughout your day.
2. Finding the right "spark" gives you a go-to activity to help change mood in a pinch, when your loved one is upset or bored.
3. Going out to, say, a concert or a museum in early- to mid-stage disease gets you both out of the house.

"Alzheimer's doesn't take away memory; your memories are all in there. The part of the brain that's damaged is the part that gives you access to memory. It's as if you put the memories in the glove compartment and you lost the key – and the art unlocked it," says John Zeisel, a sociologist who founded Artz for Alzheimer's, a very cool organization that sets up guided museum tours for people with Alzheimer's, among other programs. Zeisel is also the author of last year's I'm Still Here: A Breakthrough Approach to Understanding Someone Living With Alzheimer's.

Some ideas to get you started:

• Don't assume the arts have no effect if your loved one was never "artsy." Music and painting reach many people with dementia, even the unlikeliest.
• Experiment. Some people take to dance, others like to pluck a zither or work in fingerpaint. Rent musicals to watch. Visit a museum every Friday afternoon – it can be the same place, looking at the same art, every week; it's the routine and in-the-moment experience that helps.
• Keep it simple. My Dad, a lifelong photographer, could no longer operate even the simplest camera, but he never lost his enjoyment of polka music. Paint-by-numbers? Maybe not. Watercolor? Who knew your mom was an Impressionist?
• It's art therapy, not art class. As you look at paintings or art books, resist the urge to quiz about artists or famous works. Just talk about the colors, shapes, and emotions: "Do you like it? How about this one?"

A healing touch

Activities directors, caregivers, and healthcare professionals,here is some great information

Here is a great dementia resource for caregivers and healthcare professionals,

Your residents will love the Amazon Kindle Fire

Here is information on being the best caregiver you can be


Here is a way for nurses administrators, social workers and other health care  professionals to get an easyceu or two


Follow alzheimersideas on twitter

The Dementia Caregiver's Little Book of Hope [Kindle Edition]

By Neil Munshi Boston Globe

Auburndale man uses hugs, kisses to cope, help bring his wife back from the grip of Alzheimer's

Sol Rogers cuddled up with his wife, Rita, during a recent afternoon at Briarwood Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center in Needham. (Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff)

Every day, Sol Rogers asks the aides to make room for him on his wife's bed. He removes his glasses and puts them on the table next to the door. Slowly, he takes off his shoes and swings his 89-year-old frame onto the tiny twin hospital bed.

He cuddles up to Rita -- his wife of 61 years -- wraps his thin leg over hers, and squeezes her shoulder. He presses his face into hers and kisses her.

"I love you, Rita, I love you," he says. "Do you love me?"

"Yes."

"I love you more."

"No...," says Rita, 85, her voice slurred by advanced Alzheimer's disease.

He laughs.

Sol, of Auburndale, spends about three hours a day at the Briarwood Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center in Needham, singing Rita old songs, taking her out to the garden, or simply lying in bed with her, telling her how much he cares.

There is not much scientific evidence to support touch therapy for Alzheimer's patients, but it has clearly improved Rita's behavior - she's calmer now, communicates better, and has regained some mobility. And it's boosted Sol's ability to cope with her decline.

"We all need touch; we all deserve some kind of intimacy. And there is all kinds of research out there that the body and mind respond to touch in very positive ways," said Dr. Robert Stern, co-director of Boston University's Alzheimer's Disease Clinical and Research Program. "Whether it will actually have an impact on the progression of this degenerative disease is very unlikely, but providing someone with a connection . . . can only be positive for both."....

Do you allow this at your nursing home?