Art Therapy For Alzheimers People

[flgrl 0]

Hi all,

I have recently acquired a volunteer,where I work, who is an Art teacher. We are trying to come up with artistic and therapeutic activities for them to do. Nothing childish.Any ideas out there or books on the topic you can suggest?

Thanks!

Barbara :-)

[Guest Guest_ErinE]

Barbara--

 

I attended a seminar last week of Cat Selman's (if you ever get a chance to attend her seminar, she's excellent by the way) and she put art therapy into a great perspective. The art needs to be resident appropriate not necessarily age appropriate. I'm 43 years old and love to color, use fingerpaints, etc. Is that age appropriate?? I think the moral of the story here is HAVE FUN!! I wouldn't worry about whether or not it's childish as long as the residents are having fun. The therapeutic value will happen with the fine motor skills, eye/hand coordination, socialization, and so on.

 

I had a resident who was able to make his own choices quite independently and he loved to color. He would come to the activity office and pick out pictures from a coloring book and color them--he had pictures hung up everywhere!! The DON informed me that we should come up with something different for this resident to do as "what would the State Deparment of Health think?" I stood my ground since this resident chose to do this and was cognitively able to make this decision. By the way, State didn't say anything about the coloring or the choice of pictures.

 

So I say you are very lucky to have such a talented volunteer and I know your residents are going to have a lot of fun!!

[kevinm 2]

For Art therapy and alzheimers residents, be sure to check out your local Alzheimers Association and the program "Memories in the Making" it is geared specifically for alzhiemers, and a very good tool for your residents to be able to express themselves through art.

 

Kevin

[wonytineres 0]

In regard to the age appropriate comments... I always explain things as being 'stage appropriate' vs. 'age appropriate'. Example: is it age appropriate for a 79 year old man to color picture of Barney the Dinosaur with big crayola crayons? Answer: probably not however is we offer that 79 year adult themed coloring sheets (check out Nasco they have a great selection) with colored pencils or markers this activity then becomes stage appropriate. I think you can apply this concept with most of the activities we do i.e. using a baby doll with a dementia resident. I am fortunate to have an art therapist on staff and she is amazing! The projects she does with our residents across the continum of care are terrific and therapeutic; I often marvel at her abilities.

[Guest Guest_ErinE]

wonytineres--

 

You are one lucky Activity Director!!

[gina 2]

Hi All,

Has anyone tried Time Slips?

It is a very interesting way to get your Alzheimers residents to write and draw stories of their lives.I would think your Art teacher (flgirl) could do this with the residents and really have some fun with them.

Check out the website:

http://www.timeslips.org/index.html

Have fun! Gina :-D

[Vanessa 0]

I do both the Timeslips program and Memories in the Making proram. They are both awesome tools! I have residents in their 90's who are painting for the first time in their lives and are fabulous. They would have never thought of trying it on their own (and needed some encouragement to try). Their families are now taking their paintings to art stores to be matted and framed! I found a website, www.enchantedlearning.com, that has great coloring pages by great artists - Monet, Mondrian, O'Keefe, etc. I totally agree that the programs need to be stage appropriate over age appropriate. Some of the art projects we do are silly (like making May Day hats out of paper plates) and some are more serious (photographing aged hands for an art display), but my residents love it all and are willing to try anything once. >Vanessa

[Melete 0]

Hi All,

Has anyone tried Time Slips?

It is a very interesting way to get your Alzheimers residents to write and draw stories of their lives.I would think your Art teacher (flgirl) could do this with the residents and really have some fun with them.

Check out the website:

http://www.timeslips.org/index.html

Have fun! Gina :-D

Hi Gina....i know this was posted some time ago but just wanted to acknowledge that i love it!! i have been doing something similiar and informal for a while now, however this has given me so much more scope and ideas with which to work with.

 

thank you!!..

[Guest Guest_guest]

Occassionally, I will print off the computer (google images) in black and white( try to use medium contrast tone so that the black or dark tones are not too dark) paintings, large faces of infants, still life photos..etc etc. anything actually (maybe even try past interest/specific images that resident prefers....heheh........ new guidelines)

 

I let the resident choose what image they will "colorize" heheheh ( a euphamistic spin-off of the word "COLORIZATION" which I think, allows a resident to feel that what they are about to do is not child-like. Refer to the old colorization techniques like making famous black and white movies into color, or the process they used in photography of "tinting" old photos ( In fact, taking family photos and running them through the copy machine and allowing Resident to use very soft creamy colors ( colored pencils work best ) can be a lovely project.

 

Anyway, I think you get the drift. Presenting the project with adult tones at all times, using the word "colorize" AND very important: do not overly compliment and praise the final product. So often I hear the facillitator sounding "childlike" in their attempt to offer positive encouragement. In fact, LESS words MORE soft Mozart in the background is preferable. It is all about the PROCESS, not the PRODUCT. If conversation errupts because of memories triggered: well that is the goal, not the "how well you can color" comments. The deameaning tones are often set by staff coming into the room and saying," WOW, that's really great, Mrs. G., I did'nt know you were capable of doing that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" (as if they are talking to 2 yr olders) BIG PET PEEVE OF MINE

[Hope 0]

Get some of the Nature print papers (Nasco, but I think S&S may have them, don't remember). Gather leaves, flowers, twigs, and let them arrange them, you put them in the sun for 3 min and bring back their art. Inexpensive plastic frames would be handy to have if they are really pleased with them. They can spend all the time they want arranging them as long as they aren't out in the sun, and again, the process of arranging is a great way to succeed. We have a lady who has a terrific pencil drawing in her room she had done. She will tell you she had done it, too. She enjoys colored pencils and coloring books, I use the floral themes. I had also bought her a kit for Christmas with charcoals and good paper, like she was used to. She enjoys both, no problems with State once they saw the careplan and her history, even though it had to be pointed out to them.