Sad, forlorn, desperate and depressed — these are some of the feelings that devoted family members face when caring for loved ones with dementia. A new art kit for home use may help.
“In the Armchair with Picasso” was developed by a team of professionals associated with EMDA, the Alz-heimer’s Association of Israel. One of the co-developers, Michal Herz, works in project development with EMDA, Israel’s only nationwide support system for people with dementia.
“We try to develop projects based on what the relatives say they want,” Herz said. “Often we hear from them that life feels so narrow, that they can’t do so many things with their parents that they could in the past, before the illness. They don’t have an outlet to do stimulating things with their loved ones. We were looking for a concept that would change this scenario.”
Thus the take-home art kit was born, inspired by successful museum tours for Alzheimer’s patients in Israel.
“Dementia” is a general term for people with deteriorating memory loss, caused by one or more diseases. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause in people over 65.
According to experts at EMDA, people with dementia retain the ability to enjoy art even into late stages of their disease. Art can be a window into the otherwise closed world of a person lost to dementia, and can help improve cognitive and communication skills, and emotional expression.
“After buying the kit, people are sending me emails saying they are learning new things about their mom — things they never knew before. Or that their mom is remembering new things from her youth,” said Herz.
The art kit concept began at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, which conceived the idea of catering museum tours to people with dementia: “Meet Me At MOMA” began about five years ago, and Israel was one of the first to pick up the program.
The aim is to get people with dementia out of the house along with their family members, who cope with the energy-draining task of communicating with their loved ones.
Herz started MOMA-style tours at 12 museums in Israel, and participants were eager for more. So she and her partners at EMDA decided to create an art “tour” that can be used therapeutically at home.
EMDA gained copyrights to about 50 prints by famous artists and printed them on large cardboard posters. On the back are questions and tips for communicating with those suffering from dementia. The images were chosen to reflect a “normative” life, said Herz. “Prints are of everyday scenes so that people with dementia see themselves or their lives in the art.”
The kits are available in Hebrew and English and can be sent anywhere by mail order for about $50. There is not yet clinical data on how well the kits work, but the response by those using it has been encouraging, Herz said.
For more information about “In the Armchair with Picasso” visit www.alz-il.net