"ALZHEIMER'S POETRY PROJECT"
Program Description
"(Internationally) serving over 15,000 people living with Alzheimer's disease. The Alzheimer's Poetry Project has given staff training for over 1,500 health care workers and family members in using poetry with dementia."
"We seek to bond together as a community built on shared words, passions, and discoveries through the performance and creation of poetry."
- alzpoetry.com
Alzheimer’s Poetry workshops cover:
-Reading of classic poems together with the group
-Each participant assisting in creating a communal poem
-Performance of the final communal poem by each participant
The “Alzheimer's Poetry Project” workshops can be a useful dementia activity allowing those with different stages of dementia to participate.
Those within all stages of dementia can benefit from using poetry as a form art therapy.
Early stages of Alzheimer's and related dementia often have some memory intact and are able to write poetry with assistance and can engage in discussion. The activity aims to evoke memories from their past experiences.
Middle stages of Alzheimer's and related dementia lose more of the ability to speak. The aim is by hearing poetry they are encouraged to say lines of poems.
Late and Terminal stages Alzheimer's and related dementia can respond to poetry by emotion and non-verbal responses such as smiles, tears, etc.
The ‘Memory Arts Café’ is a unique activity for those with Alzheimer's and other dementia. A series of free art events for people living with Alzheimer's disease, their caregivers and the public is organized by The ‘New York Memory Center’ and the ‘Alzheimer's Poetry Project.’
The “Alzheimer's Poetry Project” has received the ‘MetLife Foundation Creativity and Aging in America Leadership Award.’
The ‘Alzheimer's Poetry Project’ has been conducted in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Virginia, Washington, Washington DC and Wisconsin and internationally in Germany (Alzpoetry) and Poland. Dementia poetry workshops are available in English, Spanish, German and Hebrew.
source: alzpoetry.com
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