The role and value of the arts for people living with dementia

Dr Hannah ZeiligJohn KillickDr Chris Fox

• Dementia?

• What are the arts and what is value?

• Themes from the literature review

• Concluding thoughts

What are the arts?

What is value?

“Art is a means of union among men, joining them together in the same feelings, and indispensible for the life and progress towards the well-being of individuals and of humanity.”

Leo Tolstoy

Participative arts for people with dementia

Music for thought

Verd-de-gris

Visual to vocal Elderflowers

Literature review - case studies to large scale

RCTs

- quality of life- wellbeing - cognition- emotion and mood - activity level- behavioural change- episodic memory- long-term memory - verbal fluency

Song, music, dance, poetry, writing, visual art and drama have all positively contributed to dementia care.

Major themes:Arts enjoyable, new learning, help social isolation, positive impact on cognition, arts as a place of contact, stable aesthetic judgments

Community-based arts• Literary arts have a positive

social impact

• Live music improves mental wellbeing

• Singing and viewing and discussing visual art increases sustained attention

• Singing and dance can reduce challenging behaviour in people with severe dementia

“Music connects us and makes us all equal, essentially.”

www.markmaking.arts.ac.ukh.zeilig@fashion.arts.ac.uk