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Here’s a recent article from The Washington Post that reports on an important and exciting trend in Alzheimer’s care: Changing the “Tragedy Narrative:” Why a Growing Camp Is Promoting a More Joyous Approach to Alzheimer’s. The article shines a spotlight on some of the many, many activists, advocates, caregivers and people living with dementia who are using play, performance and improvisation to create more creative and relational approaches to dementia care.
I’m especially pleased that the article cites my Institute’s work in this area being led by Dr. Susan Massad and Mary Fridley, who is also quoted. Their grassroots community-building efforts to advance a developmental, social therapeutic approach to living with Alzheimer’s include workshops with the intriguing title, “The Joy of Dementia (You’ve Got to be Kidding”). In these workshops, participants are invited to take a performatory posture and co-create an improvisational life as memory fades (see: Dementia the Joy of Living an Improvisational Life). The article cites another organization, ChangingAging, whose traveling show has an equally provocative title, “Disrupt Dementia.”
These and other innovators are responding to the great need for culture change in how people diagnosed with dementia are related to. The article quotes Jennifer Carson, director of the newly launched Dementia Engagement, Education and Research program at the University of Nevada at Reno, to this effect: “Alzheimer’s can be a liberating event, an opportunity to fly,” she said. “This is in no way to dismiss the pain and suffering that comes from dementia, but to understand that a lot of that pain and suffering comes from the response.”
The Washington Post article has drawn several hundred comments in its first week since appearing. It’s clearly touching a nerve and sparking dialogue among thousands grappling with how to understand and relate to dementia.
I urge you to share it and join in the movement to create other responses.
Read the full article.
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