Healing Arts Therapies and Person-Centred Dementia Care

by Anthea Innes (Editor), Karen Hatfield (Editor)

Overview

Offering practical advice for arts therapists and health care professionals, this book emphasizes the importance of putting the individual before the illness to provide holistic, person-centred support for people with dementia.

The contributors are all practising healing arts therapists who show how music, dance and the visual arts can be used in partnership with person-centred care to promote improved memory, reduced anxiety, increased self-esteem, better communication and successful group interaction. They use case studies to demonstrate the ways in which therapists can encourage engagement of those with dementia with sound, touch, movement and visual forms, making this a positive and practical book for all those working to provide person-centred dementia

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781846423024
Publisher:	Kingsley, Jessica Publishers
Publication date:	10/15/2001
Series:	University of Bradford Dementia Good Practice Guides
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	128
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Anthea Innes has recently began work as a research fellow at the Centre for Social Research on Dementia, University of Stirling. Prior to this she was a lecturer with Bradford Dementia Group and continues to be involved in ethnicity and dementia research with BDG. Karen Hatfield is the director of Healing Arts Therapies at University Hospitals Health System - Heather Hill Hospital and Health Partnership. She is currently pursuing a master's degree in music therapy from Temple University.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction, Roseann E. Kasayka.2. From the Heart into Art: Person-centred Art Therapy, Holly Queen.3. Dance/Movement Therapy: Partners in Personhood, Liat R Shustik and Tria Thompson. 4. Principles of Person-Centred Care in Music Therapy, Karen Hatfield and Natalie McClune. 5. Conclusion, Roseann E. Kasayka, Karen Hatfield and Anthea Innes. References. Index.

Editorial Reviews

3 Stars from Doody

Reviewer: Jeannine Marie Forrest, Ph.D., R.N.(University of Illinois at Chicago College of Nursing)
Description: This book provides insight and opportunity to explore artistic and person centered ways to communicate with individuals with dementia. Within the realms of art, dance and music, the author invites readers to refocus their interactions from problematic behavioral concerns to the "residual strengths" of the individual.
Purpose: According to the author, this guide provides a blueprint of what can be achieved by qualified therapists while at the same time offering windows of insight into what can be achieved by the non-therapist who wishes to experiment with the activities of art, dance and music. Furthermore, the author continues to write that no matter the level of cognitive impairment, the person with dementia can have a "good quality of life." The initial objective is worthwhile by offering creative ways to reach the remaining core of the individual with deteriorating cognitive abilities. This objective is met by giving concrete examples of how to implement this person-centered approach that contains an existential and spiritual framework. However, the author overreaches the boundaries by making a blanket assumption that a "good quality of life" can be achieved through these particular therapeutic modalities.
Audience: Intended for therapists and non-therapists, this book is specifically useful for pracititioners and students of art, music, dance therapy as well as occupational therapy, recreational therapy, nurses and family caregivers. The authors appear to have particular experience and expertise the fields of Healing Arts Therapies and dementia care.
Features: The book presents underlying principles of person-centered care as they relate specifically to art, dance, and music therapy. Each topic provides examples of how to carry out these principles for the therapist and caregiver. Illustrations of artwork produced by persons with dementia powerfully relate how these methods can be a vehicle to communicate thoughts and emotion. A table at the end of the book offers a quick reference that comprehensively presents each therapeutic modality with examples of various exercises and their underlying person-centered principles. The book offers sufficient information to enlighten the reader at all levels. It could be strengthened by adding more images and illustrations.
Assessment: Within the area of dementia care, this book moves away from traditional concerns about behavioral problems and offers the reader positive and encouraging methods that can access the "residual strengths" of the person with dementia. In texts like Handbook of Dementia Care, by Stehman et al. (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996), the focus is on pathology, physical care, and activities for the sake of activity. This book looks at activity as a way to communicate on a meaningful level.

Doody's Review Service

This is an important and timely contribution to the field of arts and dementia; I welcome and highly recommend it to anyone interested in how to develop and maintain a truly person-centred culture of care. It is pocket sized and can easily be used as a reference for practitioners during sessions.

The Journal of Dementia Care

A fascinating insight into the contribution that art therapies can make to dementia care... This book makes two distinctive contributions: it makes the process of art therapy more accessible to practitioners from other disciplines, and it presents dementia care as a field of work that deserves more attention from art therapies.

Cambridge University Press

I have long been a fan of this series of texts which do exactly "what they say on the tin", i.e. provide "jargon free guidance to carers of people with dementia". Person Centred Care and associated therapies are becoming increasingly recognised as playing a key role in the management of persons with dementia and have done much to shift thinking away from the traditional medical model towards more eclectic, holistic treatment... The editors have shown considerable skill in assembling a short series of articles from skilled therapists into an accessible guide suitable for all professional and informal carers... Many readers will find this an excellent introduction to untried areas of therapy and the excellent referencing is commendable... I would recommend this book to all professional careers in the field of dementia and also to bodies such as Age Concern and the Alzheimer's Disease Society who advise informal carers... This book should also be compulsory reading for all those who commission care for people with dementia at whatever level.

International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry

A fascinating insight into the contribution that art therapies can make to dementia care... This book makes two distinctive contributions: it makes the process of art therapy more accessible to practitioners from other disciplines, and it presents dementia care as a field of work that deserves more attention from art therapies.

Cambridge University Press