Background
About 5.4 million people in America have Alzheimer’s disease, the most common type of dementia. This means that 1 in 8 Americans aged 65 or older and almost half of Americans over 85 have the disease. With that segment of the population growing, we can expect more and more cases of Alzheimer’s in the coming years. For example, presently someone develops Alzheimer’s every 69 seconds, but by mid-century someone will develop the disease every 33 seconds. Another concern is the number of unpaid caregivers—14.9 million. It is clear that there is a need to enhance the quality of life for both Alzheimer’s patients and their caregivers. Museums can help.
Considerations
Alzheimer’s disease results in mental decline. This affects recent memory, language (the skills required to write, speak or comprehend), abstract thinking, and the abilities to understand and use symbols, plan, reason, solve problems and focus on a task. Patients can become disoriented, lose initiative, and have changes in mood, personality and behavior. The disease often results in the "the four A's" – anxiety, aggression, agitation and apathy. Also keep in mind that participants, due to their age, might also have problems with their hearing, sight and mobility, each addressed in earlier posts.
The disease starts by affecting the parts of the brain involved in creating new memories. But the Parietal lobe, which is stimulated through creative activities such as art and music, is not affected until rather late in the disease. Here lies the potential for museums to help this audience.
A museum seeking to serve Alzheimer’s patients would need to first consider comfort. There needs to be a short walk from a vehicle to the door, available wheelchairs and stools, and easily accessible bathrooms including companion care restrooms. During the program itself, guides would need to encourage visitors, accept all answers and call upon participants to think and give their opinions rather than to remember.
Case Study
Regarding the affects of Alzheimer’s disease, John Zeisel, one of the creators of the MoMA Alzheimer’s Project says,
“I don’t think Alzheimer’s takes anything away at the end of life. Whether you lose the ability to sequence complex events or whether you lose the ability to express yourself in certain words or whether you lose the ability to control your impulses, these are not essential to life. What Alzheimer’s does is it leaves the essential parts of life. It leaves people’s ability to be joyous. It leaves people’s ability to see art and respond to music. It leaves people’s ability to relate to other people and feel things deeply. If through the environment and through the people that stay together with them, they can touch those deep memories of their lives, those remain and that’s there til the end of their lives.”
The Museum of Modern Art in New York City holds a special program called Meet Me at MoMA once a month for people living with Alzheimer’s and their caregivers. A specially trained museum educator leads everyone in an interactive discussion about art. Through the program, the Alzheimer’s patients can exercise their mental facilities, access long-term memories and find personal relevance while exploring the museum’s collection. These meaningful activities often help improve mood and there have been reported decreases in the "the four A's" (anxiety, aggression, agitation and apathy). Finally, the program provides an opportunity to strengthen the caregiver-patient relationship, which can be vital during stressful times.
During the program, museum guides use inquiry-based techniques, asking open-ended questions to facilitate conversation. The stages of the discussion are Observation, Description, Interpretation, Connection, Small Group Conversation (Turn and Talk) and Summary.
MoMA published materials to provide other museums with a How-To on creating successful programs for people with dementia. Some of their recommended facilitation strategies include:
- Be relaxed and let the conversation go in unexpected directions.
- Keep the atmosphere light and humorous.
- Show interest in all comments and be supportive. Remember that people want to leave feeling good about themselves. Never chastise a participant—validate frequently and sincerely.
- Keep the effects of the disease in mind but never mention it.
- Make eye contact, pay attention to non-verbal communication (facial expression, body language, gestures) and talk directly even to non-verbal participants.
- Emphasize and define key words and avoid vague language, interpret and clarify a comment if you are having trouble understanding it.
- Repeat questions and comments so the whole group can hear.
- Encourage debate.
- Allow people to comment as much as they like but don’t let anyone monopolize the conversation. Patiently bring to a close overly-long comments.
- Build a theme out of responses, repeating and building on them.
- Summarize often.
- Enthusiasm and sincerity are key!
Where do we go from here?
How else can we serve Alzheimer’s patients and their caregivers? How can museum educators learn from and build upon the MoMA model? What has Meet Me at MoMA not done that might better serve Alzheimer’s patients?
Sources
Meet Me At Moma
ARTZ Museum Program for Alzheimer’s
ABC News: Art Awakens Minds
Alzheimers Association
About 5.4 million people in America have Alzheimer’s disease, the most common type of dementia. This means that 1 in 8 Americans aged 65 or older and almost half of Americans over 85 have the disease. With that segment of the population growing, we can expect more and more cases of Alzheimer’s in the coming years. For example, presently someone develops Alzheimer’s every 69 seconds, but by mid-century someone will develop the disease every 33 seconds. Another concern is the number of unpaid caregivers—14.9 million. It is clear that there is a need to enhance the quality of life for both Alzheimer’s patients and their caregivers. Museums can help.
Considerations
Alzheimer’s disease results in mental decline. This affects recent memory, language (the skills required to write, speak or comprehend), abstract thinking, and the abilities to understand and use symbols, plan, reason, solve problems and focus on a task. Patients can become disoriented, lose initiative, and have changes in mood, personality and behavior. The disease often results in the "the four A's" – anxiety, aggression, agitation and apathy. Also keep in mind that participants, due to their age, might also have problems with their hearing, sight and mobility, each addressed in earlier posts.
The disease starts by affecting the parts of the brain involved in creating new memories. But the Parietal lobe, which is stimulated through creative activities such as art and music, is not affected until rather late in the disease. Here lies the potential for museums to help this audience.
A museum seeking to serve Alzheimer’s patients would need to first consider comfort. There needs to be a short walk from a vehicle to the door, available wheelchairs and stools, and easily accessible bathrooms including companion care restrooms. During the program itself, guides would need to encourage visitors, accept all answers and call upon participants to think and give their opinions rather than to remember.
Case Study
Regarding the affects of Alzheimer’s disease, John Zeisel, one of the creators of the MoMA Alzheimer’s Project says,
“I don’t think Alzheimer’s takes anything away at the end of life. Whether you lose the ability to sequence complex events or whether you lose the ability to express yourself in certain words or whether you lose the ability to control your impulses, these are not essential to life. What Alzheimer’s does is it leaves the essential parts of life. It leaves people’s ability to be joyous. It leaves people’s ability to see art and respond to music. It leaves people’s ability to relate to other people and feel things deeply. If through the environment and through the people that stay together with them, they can touch those deep memories of their lives, those remain and that’s there til the end of their lives.”
The Museum of Modern Art in New York City holds a special program called Meet Me at MoMA once a month for people living with Alzheimer’s and their caregivers. A specially trained museum educator leads everyone in an interactive discussion about art. Through the program, the Alzheimer’s patients can exercise their mental facilities, access long-term memories and find personal relevance while exploring the museum’s collection. These meaningful activities often help improve mood and there have been reported decreases in the "the four A's" (anxiety, aggression, agitation and apathy). Finally, the program provides an opportunity to strengthen the caregiver-patient relationship, which can be vital during stressful times.
During the program, museum guides use inquiry-based techniques, asking open-ended questions to facilitate conversation. The stages of the discussion are Observation, Description, Interpretation, Connection, Small Group Conversation (Turn and Talk) and Summary.
MoMA published materials to provide other museums with a How-To on creating successful programs for people with dementia. Some of their recommended facilitation strategies include:
- Be relaxed and let the conversation go in unexpected directions.
- Keep the atmosphere light and humorous.
- Show interest in all comments and be supportive. Remember that people want to leave feeling good about themselves. Never chastise a participant—validate frequently and sincerely.
- Keep the effects of the disease in mind but never mention it.
- Make eye contact, pay attention to non-verbal communication (facial expression, body language, gestures) and talk directly even to non-verbal participants.
- Emphasize and define key words and avoid vague language, interpret and clarify a comment if you are having trouble understanding it.
- Repeat questions and comments so the whole group can hear.
- Encourage debate.
- Allow people to comment as much as they like but don’t let anyone monopolize the conversation. Patiently bring to a close overly-long comments.
- Build a theme out of responses, repeating and building on them.
- Summarize often.
- Enthusiasm and sincerity are key!
Where do we go from here?
How else can we serve Alzheimer’s patients and their caregivers? How can museum educators learn from and build upon the MoMA model? What has Meet Me at MoMA not done that might better serve Alzheimer’s patients?
Sources
Meet Me At Moma
ARTZ Museum Program for Alzheimer’s
ABC News: Art Awakens Minds
Alzheimers Association
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