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Promoting Creative Engagement in the Elderly

Publish date: April 1, 2010
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Dr. Bell's Perspective

Encouraging creative engagement in older adults is a good strategy to

maintain or improve mood and morale, although there is not yet enough

research to show its indisputable efficacy.

Regarding the issues of mild cognitive impairment or decline,

especially with memory loss caused by Alzheimer's disease, the jury is

still out because of the lack of quality science.

Many of the studies that demonstrate that older adults who are

involved in participatory, community-base arts programs (music, art,

storytelling, jewelry making, etc.) have improved memory and problem

solving, and reduced rates of depression, anxiety, and so forth are

promising, but much more evidence needs to be accumulated before they

can be recommended universally based on their scientific efficacy,

particularly in patients with Alzheimer's disease.

As the brain is capable of neurogenesis, it might be that activities

that increase the brain's capacity might be protective of degenerative

brain diseases, because the more brain a person has, the more he or she

can afford to lose. However, based on the evidence, these interventions

have not yet been shown to stop or prevent the pathophysiologic process

in Alzheimer's disease.

One of the persistent, pervasive problems hampering this area of

research is that the definitions used by scientists to define mild

cognitive impairment are varied, making the comparison between studies

difficult. There also hasn't been much work solidly connecting mild

cognitive impairment with Alzheimer's disease.

Those of us in the baby boom generation are terrified of developing

dementia, and, as a result, there is a tremendous push to discover how

cognitive decline from Alzheimer's disease can be staved off. Great care

has to be taken, however, not to exploit this vulnerability by

promising that services, products, or activities will prevent cognitive

decline without the necessary quality science to back up the claims.


 

Susan H. McFadden, Ph.D., professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh, and coauthor with Dr. Basting of a paper titled “Healthy Aging Persons and Their Brains: Promoting Resilience Through Creative Engagement” published in February (Clin. Geriatr. Med. 2010;26:149-61), believes that one of the most fundamental mechanisms is the “sense of social connectedness” that comes from working together on projects related to the arts.

Other possible contributors are “the physical activity in some of these programs, the sense of optimism people feel about working together on something they all think is important, the positive emotions they experience, and a sense of mastery and hopefulness that comes from investing yourself in something important,” she said in an interview. “All of these have positive effects on the immune system, the endocrine system, and the nervous system.”

She said several organizations support creative engagement with well and frail older adults, and several well-known programs target this population. The University of Wisconsin Center on Age & Community Web site has an extensive list of products and resources, including free, downloadable white papers on this issue (www.aging.uwm.eduwww.aging.uwm.eduwww.creativeaging.org

Also, she said, the Society for the Arts in Healthcare is in the process of putting together a primer aimed at helping artists learn how to work with frail older adults; the Museum of Modern Art, New York, has an elegant book called “Meet Me: Making Art Accessible to People with Dementia” that seeks to help museums begin education programs for people with dementia; and a book by John Zeisel, Ph.D., addresses the arts as part of a full treatment plan that also includes assessment of the environment (“I'm Still Here” [New York: Avery, 2009]).

In her book, “Forget Memory: Creating Better Lives for People With Dementia” (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), Dr. Basting highlights a range of arts programs designed for the elderly.

By Diana Mahoney. Share your thoughts and suggestions at cpnews@elsevier.com

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