My grandfather was recently diagnosed with dementia. As a sharp thinker and an active man, he is finding it harder and harder to communicate, and it has been hard for us to watch his cognitive abilities fade. Having immigrated from Russia in the ‘70s in the midst of detente, he struggled but eventually overcame the language barrier and achieved fluency in English.
Now, as Alzheimer’s pulls him backwards in both comprehension and time, he’s finding it increasingly difficult to speak in English and switch between English and his native Russian. Naturally, this is an extremely difficult time for him, and his inability to express his growing agitation only adds fuel to the fire. Unfortunately, my grandfather’s case is not an isolated incident.
With 5 million people living with Alzheimer’s in the United States, and 720,000 alone living in California, the pressing need for treatments to help those suffering from memory loss has never been more urgent. Medically, there is little we can do — there is only one FDA approved drug on the market for those suffering from Alzheimer’s, and things are equally grim when looking at treatments for dementia as a whole.
Even worse, all of the available treatments focus on stalling the progression of the diseases rather than preventing them. This leaves people like my grandfather in a tough spot — they can’t be cured, and there is no turning back the clock.
However, while a true cure may be beyond our medical capabilities for now, there are measures we can take to stall the onset of dementia and treatments we can provide to give comfort to the elderly suffering from it. Of these treatments, one of the most novel is the growing field of art therapy, the use of art to ease the symptoms of dementia and memory loss.
Recently, a growing number of art therapy programs have emerged in Southern California to aid the growing population of seniors. In Orange County, seniors with dementia have been able to participate in art classes through Memories in the Making since 1988.
According to a 2022 story in the Daily Pilot, the program provides therapy far beyond art. By focusing on hand-brain coordination, patients are able to orient and create projects that provide them with feelings of satisfaction and accomplishment. Prompts can be helpful to get projects started minimizing anxiety. Specifically, choosing adult-focused projects can help improve the self-esteem of dementia patients by reaffirming to them that they are still capable of complex activities.
Carol Albright’s husband Russ participated in the program, and she expressed how the program assisted him beyond art: “Even though Russ was very shy, he became more comfortable talking with other people about his struggles and expressing his feelings. He also learned techniques to help him cope with his declining memory.” Similar to Memories in the Making, the Alzheimer’s Family Services Center in Laguna Beach offers art classes and often coordinates tours to the Laguna Art Museum to stimulate creativity.
According to research by art therapist Jessica Woolhiser Stallings, collaging is a good way for dementia patients to connect and reminisce by using family or childhood pictures, and the available data seems to support these anecdotes.
People engaged in art are less likely to develop cognitive impairment than those that are not. Additionally, engagement with art itself can help regulate blood pressure, ultimately reducing anxiety and helping calm the mind. If patients with dementia are dealing with speech or language problems, the finalized art pieces can be a great way for them to comprehend and communicate their feelings nonverbally.
Even just looking at art has correlated with higher levels of mental awareness in dementia patients, as the complex processes the brain runs to register visual art helps to keep the mind sharp.
With all of this in mind, I recently tried giving my grandfather a canvas and asked him to paint with me. It took a good amount of prompting. He’s a chemical engineer in heart and mind, a man who’s invested his entire life into the science of elemental composition, so I think he saw the task as a little elementary.
After some false starts, he ended up utterly absorbed, and, without a word, I could see vestiges of his chemist’s precision returning, preserving pieces of his identity with only the beautiful stroke of a brush.
