“Many people who have dementia are anxious, or they get distracted easily,” says Stephenson. For a lot of people, looking at or making art can help keep them calmer and more engaged. Making art can reduce anxiety and agitation.įor many people with Alzheimer’s, bouts of anxiety or agitation can require medical treatment, which can leave them sluggish and less responsive. This goes against what’s taught about people living with dementia, that they no longer can remember short-term information.”Īrt therapist Erica Curcio '14 uses art to restore "choice, control, and confidence" to her clients with memory loss. They still have that stored memory of that experience and that it was an important moment for them. For people who don’t have language anymore, they might look at their artwork and get very excited about it. And for some people, that artwork that they create, they remember that they created it, they know the story behind it. “There’s more than words can describe in somebody’s artwork-there’s a feeling behind it there are stories behind it. “All the artwork behind me is a tangible memory it's a creation from a moment in time,” she says, referring to the bright paintings that fill her office. Art can help create new memories.Īrt therapist and Lesley alumna Erica Curcio ’14 runs a therapy practice working with people living with dementia in their homes. It was a beautiful human connection to be able to witness someone doing that-to leave myself at the door and slow down and focus on all these nonverbal cues.” 3. I could slow down and actually sit next to her and pay close attention to the tactile movements she’d make with her fingers, watch her eyes and how she would lean forward and lean back-it all gave me information about how she was engaging in the process. She would smile and point down at her picture. And she was very much connected to what was happening around her. “She was taking in information and expressing it in the painting. “She would look around and take notice of what was happening, but she couldn’t really express herself verbally.”īut the patient brightened visibly when she started painting. Stephenson recalls a patient who could no longer speak in English-only a few words of Russian, her original language. “But I see them as a full, whole person, and I use the art as a way of helping them to communicate.” “Their primary door of verbal communication is gone,” says Dr. But creating art can give patients a new avenue of expression. Many people with Alzheimer’s or dementia lose the ability to communicate verbally. Art creates an outlet for self-expression and communication. It doesn’t matter what the picture is about or what the intention is-someone puts something out there and someone else receives it and responds to it. “Having that external surprise of color or shape or form that’s happening as the artwork is being created takes the pressure off everyone sitting at that table to talk and comprehend.
People tend to become really isolated.”Ĭreating art in a group environment, she explains, gives people with dementia a non-verbal way to interact with the people around them. “People with Alzheimer’s can become trapped and locked away-their ability to understand abstract thinking goes away their ability to verbalize and communicate goes away. “It brings people together,” says Lesley Associate Professor of Expressive Therapies Raquel Stephenson, who has worked with older adults for more than two decades. Making art with other people can help people with memory loss stay connected with the world around them. Here are 6 ways that art therapy can helpġ. Making and engaging with art-from looking at art books or pictures or visiting museums and galleries to drawing and painting-can help people with memory loss be happier, healthier, less isolated and more connected. Receiving a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease or dementia can be devastating for patients and their families, and caring for a loved one struggling with memory, comprehension, or communication can be difficult. And with more Americans living longer, more families are caring for older relatives who are experiencing memory loss. By age 85, that number increases to 1 in 3. Art educator Christina Muscatello '12 watches as her grandmother, Mary Muscatello, paints at an easel.īy age 65, 1 in 10 people will exhibit symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, a progressive illness that affects memory and cognitive ability.
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