Impact of the Artful Moments Intervention on Persons With Dementia and Their Care Partners

Dementia is a condition that is characterized by a decrease in the brain's cognitive functions. The particular functions affected include attention, memory, language, problem-solving, and judgment. The "Artful moments" utilized appreciation and creation of artwork to facilitate engagement of middle to late stage adults with dementia. The objective of the activities of the program was to emphasize on the abilities and strengths of dementia patients instead of focusing on negative aspects such as loss of their abilities.

From my experience with middle to late-stage dementia patients, the burden is not only on them but their caregivers especially. I recall the partner of one of an elderly male dementia patient complaining about the giving of care to a dementia patient being hectic. The partner complained about the lack of proper communication between her and her ill partner. The patient together with the partner who was also his caregiver was recommended to a program with a similar concept as "Artful moments." When the couple was undergoing the program, I learned a few things and acquired knowledge that will be helpful in my future career.

From my experience with the elderly patient and his caregiver, participation in appreciation of art and its creation enhanced communication between the two. For instance, with the couple, the wife who was the husband's caregiver confessed that she felt great about the fact that her husband's communication improved at the program. While undertaking the program, it was clear that her husband's communication skills improved as he was reluctant about talking at first, but with time he was able to express his opinion about the various works of art freely. It was one of the objectives the program did seek to accomplish, same as "Artful moments" which had an aim of helping the dementia patients improve their expression and better their social connections (Hazzan et al., 2016).

For the caregiver, she confessed that participating in activities involving art helped a lot in making her feel less stressed. The reason is that participation in the program helped the caregiver spend more time with the patient doing activities that promoted mutual enjoyment, therefore, strengthening the relationship between the two. Appreciation of art to lower the caregiver's burden is one role it serves. Caregiver's burden is the perception that they have that caregiving adversely affects their emotional, financial, social, physical, and spiritual lives (Hazzan et al., 2016).

From this experience, I learned some things about myself. I discovered that although most people including myself usually think that taking care of a family member who is unwell is not a burden, the case is different when you have to do it for a long time. It entails a lot of financial, emotional, physical, and social sacrifices.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I learned that the care of dementia patients entails a lot of sacrifices and places the burden on the caregiver. It is essential for therapy involving dementia patients also to include their caregivers. In the use of art therapy for dementia patients, some things can be improved. One is teaching the caregivers ways in which they can themselves use art to improve the individual expression by the patients, validate their personality, improve their involvement, and improve their relationship with them. I will apply the lessons I learned from this experience in my future career, mainly pertaining care for dementia patients.

References

Hazzan, A., Humphrey, J., Kilgour-Walsh, L., Moros, K., Murray, C., & Stanners, S. et al. (2016). Impact of the 'Artful Moments' Intervention on Persons with Dementia and Their Care Partners: a Pilot Study. Canadian Geriatrics Journal, 19(2). http://dx.doi.org/10.5770/cgj.19.220