Education and Care with Dementia: Art
For individuals who are dealing with dementia and Alzheimers disease, certain types of therapies can often help with their symptoms and help make their condition easier to deal with. One of the many therapies that has been shown to be effective for individuals with Alzheimers disease is art therapy. Art therapy can be done either in the home or in a group class and it can help stimulate the brain and the imagination of an individual with Alzheimers disease, often helping in slowing down the progression of this condition.
Many have found that art therapy is also a great way for Alzheimers patients to express themselves when their verbal skills have started to deteriorate. Art can also help improve the use of fine motor skills in many Alzheimers patients. There is no end to all of the different benefits that come with art therapy. If you are looking to enroll your loved one in a program like this to help with their dementia, then there are a few things that you will want to keep in mind, to make sure this program is as effective as possible.
- Try to keep the art activities simple so that you don’t confuse or overwhelm the individual with Alzheimers. Many times activities like painting and even sculpting are ideal
- Make sure that you are careful about the materials being used and do not have an individual with dementia handling or working with toxic materials. Should they swallow these items it could be quite harmful
- Place your loved one in a calm and comfortable setting so that they can relax while doing their art therapy. Don’t have a great deal of clutter or stimuli around and consider playing light background music during their therapy session. If your loved one is too overwhelmed by their surroundings their attempts to focus on their art can fail
- Always stay positive and remember that this activity is designed to help the individual with dementia. Always use a calm and soothing voice and provide them with positive reinforcement so that they start to associate art therapy with positive feelings
- Encourage the individual with dementia to evoke memories with their art work and to draw or create images that may be familiar to them or evoke happy memories from their past
- Open up the lines of communication about the artwork. This can be a great way to provide your loved one with some much needed mental stimulation and it can help them recall or draw upon certain memories