Dementia and Care with Dignity

I few weeks ago I wrote about an environmental and arts in health  program that I had been involved in to enhance the environment of a medical ward housing demetia patients in the West of Ireland. With the recent deaths in Canada of Alzheimer patients who have wandered out of their care facility, I have been compelled to undertake further research and explorations into what is possible for the care of the elderly with severe Alzheimer disease.

What follows is a video done by CNN during which we are invited by Dr. Gupta to travel to Hogewey, a small village in Weesp, the Netherlands, to a nursing home that is really a village complete with shops, hair salons and community programmes. The architectural adaptations, nursing care, and arts activities such as music, cooking and other projects, allow patients to participate in their community and succeeds in providing a safe, healthy living environment.

We are taken to a wonderful village in which people are enabled to lead a life with dignity despite their severe dementia. It illustrates what can be done with creativity, architectural adaptations and proper training for all staff.

We in Canada need to learn a lesson!

An arts and Peacebuilding project in Bahrain

The combination of imagination and action is powerful and can be transformative. What follows is a project taken up by a group of young Bahrainian men and women to provide opportunities for renewed tolerance and understandings of each other. It is the story of ULAFA'A, the team of individuals and the process.

They initiated everything from Free Hugs, to collaborative notebooks.

The project was presented at Brandeis University in 2013.

Theatre and Peacebuilding: Arts and Politics

This trailer of a larger project directed by Allison Lund explores the use of theatre as a medium through which people work together to heal community and peace build. It reflects international projects by artists and theatre directors in Cambodia, Australia, Argentina and Uganda. These are new forms of theatre created by people within a community. It raises artistic and peacebuilding dilemmas such as can theatre be used for political purposes and, in doing so, is the aesthetic quality compromised as there is little time to digest the process?

This video, and the projects it portrays is inspiring.

Laughter is the Best Medicine

This week friends have drawn my attention to  a couple of projects that are inspiring. Both use the photography as a way to ease the stress of cancer in both men and women. Both projects were undertaken by men and raise awareness . .  .

The Tutu Project was created by photographer Bob Carey "as a lark" to cheer his wife up. Have a look . . . 

The other project was inspired by something said by cancer patients -  that they miss "Being Carefree." Twenty patients were invited by the Mimi Foundation into a studio where they sat in front of a one way mirror with their eyes closed as their make-up was redone. On the other side of the mirror was photographer Vincent Dixon. They were invited to open their eyes .  . .

Have a look . . .

When someone suffers a severe illness, is hospitalized or watches a sick family or friend they can forget their life before their illness. They can become their illness. those of us who are caregivers and supporters, run the risk of focusing on their vulnerability rather than their strengths. Both of these projects shine a spotlight on the resilience of the human spirit and encourage laughter which in turn will build self esteem, the capacity to heal and remember life before their dis/ease.

Alzheimer's and environment

Another component of Launch International is using the arts within a healthcare environment to ease patient experience and the workload of the medical staff, by transforming austere medical enviornments into places of healing.

There has been much press recently about the care of elderly people suffering from dementia and Alzheimer's disease. While in Ireland I was part of a project that addressed challenging, and sometimes violent behaviour of patients, while at the same time easing the workload of clinical staff due to the constant attention required to care for this population. In addition, the medical units became reminders of the past with ambient lighting, fake fireplaces and a view created by a mural montage of surrounding nature.

The project was undertaken by Mount Carmel Hospital in Clonakilty County Cork, and saw the transformation medical wards into bedrooms, living rooms, a kitchen and garden. The medical units were renamed Saoirse which in the Irish language means Freedom, in the hopes of encouraging a more liberal approach to the regimental care, and in shifting attitudes of staff and family visitors. The women were encouraged to do what they had traditionally done such as wash dishes, mend trousers, and sit around a "fire" drinking tea and chatting. The men were encouraged to dress when they wanted rather than the required practice of 9 a.m.  One male patient was allowed to sleep with his clothes on as he had been a farmer when he was younger and had never married. In several instances, once moved on Saoirse, there was a marked difference in patients who had been highly aggressive.

Rather than write more about it, let me show you some before and after shots . . . .

Here is the hallway where the patients would walk up and down - in some cases, try to escape

Here is the hallway after the transformation into a series of shop windows

The patient is calm and comforted as she and nurse are seemingly out for a walk in the neighbourhood.

Here is a standard six bed room

During the project a similar six bed room is transformed into a kitchen where Alzheimer's patients can wash up after dinner

 Or into a living room where they can sit and chat by the fire

The result was less medication and happier staff and calmer patients.

A Beginning

Launch evokes opportunity; new beginnings; a next chapter; possibility.

As a start to the exploration into Launch International and its potential, I thought I would share this project that opened the Annual Arts Festival in Belfast, Northern Ireland this past summer. It was imagined by Jorge Rodriquez-Gerada, a Cuban American artist and marks his most recent earthworks portrait.

Wish required moving more than 4,400 tons of soil and sand with the help the community. It was initially "drawn" through the use of satellite navigation, a process that took 18 months. It covered 11 acres in Belfast's Titanic Quarter and could be viewed from many surrounding tall buildings that were opened to the public until the rain slowly eroded the portrait.

The community was involved in the physical creation of the work making this a collaboration and celebration.