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Using the Arts to Promote Resiliency Among Persons with Dementia and Their Caregivers

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Abstract

Over 5 million persons aged 71 and older (22.2%) have some form of cognitive impairment without dementia that can adversely affect memory and other executive functional capacities (Plassman 2008). This prevalence level and the additional 5 million with Alzheimer’s disease, coupled with the burgeoning older population that will double in another 10 years, call for more creative approaches to helping these persons and their caregivers become more resilient in coping with the marked changes in their lives. The arts may be a helpful adjunct to traditional health care practices for those persons who now and will have dementia. This chapter follows from the Humanities and Arts Symposium presented at the Gerontological Society of America’s 62nd Annual Scientific Meeting in Atlanta, GA in November 2009. The authors explore how using various art forms help persons with dementia and their caregivers cope with those circumstances.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This section is adapted from the following paper: McFadden, S. H., & Basting, A. D. (2010). Healthy aging persons and their brains: promoting resilience through creative engagement. Clinics in Geriatric Medicine, 26, 149–162. doi:10.1016/j.cger.2009.11.004.

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Correspondence to Robert E. Roush .

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Roush, R.E., Braun, M., Basting, A.D., Winakur, J., Rosenberg, F., McFadden, S.H. (2011). Using the Arts to Promote Resiliency Among Persons with Dementia and Their Caregivers. In: Resnick, B., Gwyther, L., Roberto, K. (eds) Resilience in Aging. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0232-0_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0232-0_7

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