Advancing Person Centered Care through

Meaningful Art Experience

Quality Care Community Conference XIII

December 13, 2012

Jennie Smith-Peers

Executive Director, Elders Share the Arts

Carolyn Halpin-Healy

Executive Director, Arts & Minds

Today’s Facilitators

To introduce health care providers and clinicians to

innovative ways in which to provide

person-centered care with inexpensive non-

pharmaceutical interventions.

Purpose

Best practices in creative aging

The connection between Kitwood’smodel of person-centered care and art-centered activities

Tools to facilitate arts programming

The use of personal story within art-making

The activation of communication skills in response to art

Where to find additional resources to support art-making residencies

Workshop Outcomes

Engaging with art provides an

opportunity for living in the moment

and focusing attention.

In order to create the right

atmosphere, we ask everyone to turn

off your cell phones until the end of

the workshop.

We’re asking everyone to be ready to

try something new

And we remind you that you are

entering a failure free zone!

Working Agreement

Our Mission: Arts & Minds is a non-profit organization committed to improving quality of life

for people living with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. In museums, community

centers and nursing homes we provide meaningful art-centered activities to create positive

cognitive experiences, enhance communication and reduce isolation. Our programs

empower people with dementia, family members, professional caregivers, and educators to

strengthen social, emotional and spiritual bonds by engaging with art.

Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000)

The Photographer, 1942

Memory

Vision

Language

Which areas of your brain were stimulated by this activity?

Viewing art together inspires conversation that taps into memory, cognition and emotion and imagination.

Meeting Basic Needs of People with Dementia & their Caregivers

Kitwood, Dementia Reconsidered, 1997. p82, fig.5.2

Aesthetic experience stimulates the brain and memory while

strengthening social, emotional and spiritual bonds.

Recollection of film clips and post-film emotions ratings following the happiness induction

Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, 2010www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.0914054107

•Emotional experience may be independent of memory of the stimulus

Can the conscious experience of an emotion persist once

the emotion-inducing event is forgotten?

Response & Interpretation

Positive engagement with art and ideas connects us to one another and lifts the spirits!

“We can say what we feel here.”

Creative Expression

Hands-on activities awaken creativity.

“I think it’s beautiful”

Arts & Minds at Isabella

February 2011

Participants may experience reduced anxiety

Elders Share the Arts (ESTA), founded in 1979, affirms the creative potential of older adults and upholds their time-

honored role as bearers of history and culture by using the power of the arts to transmit their stories and life

experiences for the benefit of all generations.

Legacy Arts History Alive!

Pearls Of

Wisdom

Arts & Memory

Living History Arts Methodology

Reminiscence Oral History

Art

Person-centered approach to creating art with residents

Using memories to create art work

Share the Art

Display the Art

Life Collage

“It relieves stress, and helps me communicate with people better.” - Participant

“I learned new ways of creating things…My imagination is set free.” - Participant

Benefits of successful creative aging programs

Enhances the quality of life of older adults.

Meets the needs of older adults and their caregivers.

Demonstrates sequential learning and often transformational learning.

Participants experience an enriched connection with their cultural roots, practices and beliefs.

Elders see themselves as valuable members of their communities.

Elder participants in eldercare communities/facilities regard their environments as part of their community.

All participants may experience reduced anxiety.

Evaluation

Feel free to contact us!

Carolyn Halpin-Healy

Executive Director

chalpinhealy@artsandminds.org

646-873-0712

Jennie Smith-Peers

Executive Director

jsmith@estanyc.org

718-398-3870

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Alzheimer’s Disease International, World Alzheimer Report 2011: The benefits of early diagnosis and

intervention, Executive Summary.

Cohen, Gene D; Perlstein, Susan; Chapline, Jeff;Kelly, Jeanne; et al. The Impact of Professionally Conducted

Cultural Programs on the Physical Health, Mental Health, and Social Functioning of Older Adults. The

Gerontologist; Dec 2006; 46, 6; ProQuest pg. 726.

Feinstein, Justin S., Melissa C. Duffa, and Daniel Tranela. Sustained Experience of Emotion after Loss of

Memory in Patients with Amnesia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,

www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.0914054107.

Halpern, Andrea R., Jenny Ly, Seth Elkin-Frankston, Margaret G. O’Connor. ‘I know what I like’: Stability of

aesthetic preference in alzheimer’s patients, Brain and Cognition, vol 66, 2008, 65-72.

Hanna, Gay and Susan Perlstein. Creativity Matters: Arts and Aging in America, Monograph, Americans for the

Arts, September 2008.

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Hartman-Stein, Paula E. and Asenath La Rue, eds. Enhancing Cognitive Fitness in Adults: A Guide to the Use

and Development of Community-Based Programs, Springer, 2011.

I Remember Better When I Paint. A film by Berna Huebner and Eric Ellena, presented by French Connection

Films and the Hilgos Foundation, 2009. Available on Amazon.com.

Kinney, Jennifer M. and Clarissa A. Rentz. Observed well-being among individuals with dementia: Memories in

the Making ©, an art program, versus other structured activity, American Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease

and Other Dementias, vol. 20, number 4, July/August 2005, 220-227.

Scarameas, N. et al. Influence of Leisure Activity on Incidence of Alzheimer’s Disease, Neurology, vol. 57,

December 2001, 2236 – 2242.

Taylor, Janelle S. Art, Creativity, Dementia. Bulletin of the King County Medical Society, July/August vol.

90, no. 4.

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Butler, R. N. 1963. “The Life Review: An Interpretation of Reminiscence in the Aged.” Psychiatry: Journal for

the Study of Interpersonal Processes 26: 65-76.

Cohen, Gene, The Creative Age: Awakening Human Potential in the Second Half of Life, New York: Avon

Books, 2000.

Erikson, Erik and Kivnick, Helen, Vital Involvement in Old Age, New York: WW. Norton, 1986.

Sherman, Andrea and Weiner, Marsha B, 2004. Transitional Keys. A Guidebook to Improve Quality of Life for

Older Adults. NY: Circle Studio Inc.

Integrating Humanities and the Arts in the Healthcare of the Older Adult.

http://wagecc.gwumc.edu/WAGECC.NCCA.BPF.Compendium.pdf

Golden, Stephanie with Susan Perlstein, Legacy Works Training Manual, Elders Share the Arts , 2002.

Larson, Renya, A Stage for Memory, Elders Share the Arts, 2004