Posted in cultural phenom, film, public education, tagged film, HBO Alzheimer's Project, memory loss, television on March 27, 2009 | 4 Comments »
The big headline on the HBO Alzheimer’s Project says HOPELESS with the LESS crossed out.
This made me excited for this unprecedented, three-part series on this most important of issues.
But then I watched the trailer. And it was HOPELESS. I will watch and I’m sure hoping to find a little more hope – that isn’t only in the scientific “race for a cure”.
Posted in art, cultural phenom, music, tagged center on age and community, david greenberger, dementia, memory loss, Pabst theater, paul cebar on March 26, 2009 |
I’m so excited…we set the date for the CD Release concert for David Greenberger and Paul Cebar’s “Cherry Blosson Apple Picking Time.”
Save the date and book your tickets! 8 p.m., Wed. May 13th at Milwaukee’s amazing Pabst Theater… Tickets are 15$, general admission, and go on sale April 15th! Tell your friends!
Alterra Coffee Roasters is doing a gorgeous poster and postcard for the event. And Milwaukee Public Television will do a multi-camera shoot for broadcast…and pieces of it will be included in the documentary being made about Greenberger’s life work.
The CD is a compilation of songs built around interviews that David did with people with memory loss here in Milwaukee over 2008-2009. The spoken word songs and the broad range of musical styles so lovingly capture the humor and the longing of the ethereal experience of memory loss.
It’s the kick off event for The Center on Age & Community’s Think Tank and Public Forum: “How can we radically transform activities in long term care?”
Posted in art, books, cultural phenom, disability, Uncategorized, tagged images of aging, memory loss, Phillip Toledano, photo essay on dementia on March 26, 2009 | 1 Comment »
It’s such an exciting time…so many new images of dementia are coming out. Here’s one – I read about it on the Speaking of Faith website. Phillip Toledano’s Days with My Father is a going to be coming out as a book, but for now is a web-based photo essay about his father’s memory loss and confusion. It’s loving, sad, funny – poignantly capturing the whole range of the experience.
Posted in cultural phenom, tagged alzheimer's, healing, memory loss, Modern Love on March 22, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Granted, this well-written essay in the Sunday, March 22nd NYT’s Modern Love column is written by a grandson who doesn’t appear to do any of the day to day care…but he makes important observations about the potential healing power of Alzheimer’s. In his family’s case, the disease disrupted deeply rooted rituals of disdain between mother and daughter – enough so to bring the family back together. It’s worth a read.
Posted in art, cultural phenom, Uncategorized, tagged drama and nursing homes, theater and nursing homes, theater veder on March 4, 2009 | 3 Comments »
Some might say there’s already plenty of drama in a nursing home. But it can also feel like nothing is happening except the clockwork distribution of medications. One nursing home in England is trying a unique way to bring a little intrigue into the home – drama residencies.
This winter, I was lucky enough to have a visit from Theater Veder, a group of inspiring performers in Amsterdam who are doing something similar there – bringing music and remembrance to people with dementia in care facilities by playing historical character types.
This is an interesting trend that we haven’t seen too much of here in the States. It offers an enchantment of the home – bringing a story to life that they can become part of. It expands their repertoire of roles – from sick person, or person who guards the nursing station, to, perhaps, “guest at the wedding.” People with dementia know these roles, and have played them many times before, and can find joy slipping into them again.
I think it would be an added benefit and a bit of an ethical imperative that the performers train the staff in some of their performance skills so that not all the magic leaves when the actors make their exit.
Posted in art, books, tagged alzheimer's, dementia, environment, I'm still here, John Zeisel, treatment on March 2, 2009 | 1 Comment »
I remember sitting in a conference hotel (which hotel was that? which city?) and meeting (oh! I remember, it was Atlanta…) John Zeisel for the first time. Meeting John is not something you forget (the city, now that’s a different matter). John’s engine revvs at an unnaturally high level and doesn’t seem to stop. At our first meeting in Atlanta, we both talked about writing books that had been forming in us for more than a decade and that seemed to be coming out of us in final draft form. This was both a little scarey and exhilarating at the same time.
John and I share a world view on dementia and Alzheimer’s. John is the president and co-founder of Hearthstone Alzheimer’s Care, Ltd. His research into the impact of environmental design on the experience of dementia led him to advocate for a new way to think of “treatment” for Alzheimer’s. We tend to think of treatment in the form of pills. But Zeisel pushes us to consider the environment as part of the treatment plan. How is the space designed? How are people with dementia encouraged to use the space? What kinds of programs/events enliven the space?
Zeisel also founded and co-directs Artists for Alzheimer’s, which seeks to bring the arts and artists into the lives of people with dementia. Zeisel’s book, I’m Still Here: A breakthrough approach to understanding someone living with Alzheimer’s, has a section that explore various forms of the arts, including the TimeSlips project. And in Forget Memory, I have a section that talks about Artists for Alzheimer’s.
I’m Still Here is clearly and accessibly written, and exudes Zeisel’s passion for changing the way we think about and treat people with dementia. It works as a practical guide for families, for friends, and mainly I think for the people at the steering wheel of care systems and facilities, to better understand and care for people with dementia.
Some three years after meeting him for the first time, our books are meeting the marketplace at the same time, and I hope, acting as a one-two punch to jar the field into seeing people with dementia and the system in which we care for them, a little differently.
I'm Still Here
