For over 20 years, arts practitioners and dementia care staff have used the arts to support people living with dementia to reduce the impact of psychological symptoms and enhance their quality of life.
Given the limited effectiveness of pharmacological interventions for dementia, and renewed focus on prevention and risk reduction, arts and culture-based activities are now increasingly being used as part of person-centred dementia care. In addition to research evidence, we find many dementia advocates sharing how taking part in these activities has multiple benefits for living as well as possible with their dementia.
So, what is the value of arts and culture in dementia care, and how can you build this into your practice?
What is meant by ‘arts and culture’?
As part of their everyday activities, thousands of people affected by dementia listen to music amongst interests and hobbies that give them pleasure and satisfy their emotional, psychological and social needs. However, these leisure activities differ from participatory arts for people living with dementia that practitioners explicitly plan and with the goal of improving and/or maintaining health and wellbeing.
Participatory arts include singing, dancing, painting, craft, digital arts, poetry, drama and reminiscence sessions led by registered art, music, drama therapists and dance movement psychotherapists or, more often, by experienced artists, dancers, musicians, and other community arts practitioners who are employed by hospital trusts, care providers, meeting centres, and many voluntary organisations.
Community-based cultural venues also have an important role to play in supporting people with dementia and many have recognised the social, moral and business imperative for becoming dementia enabling. As a result, most museums, galleries, cinemas and theatres now provide a range of inclusive activities and events led by their staff, trained in dementia awareness, often in partnership with local arts and dementia care organisations.
What is the value of arts and culture for people with dementia?
Arts and cultural activities are important for all of us but for people living with dementia they are even more important. As the condition progresses and impairs an individual’s ability to meet occupational, psychological and social needs, arts, craft, music, dance, and moving images can provide ways of communicating and expressing emotions and feelings. These may be momentary or last longer, but all represent an enhancement of the person’s life beyond that which would have existed without those moments.
Keith Oliver, who lives with dementia, summed this up well in his thought-provoking poem ‘Give me….I will’. Amidst other requests for things that he feels will improve his wellbeing, is the line ‘Give me music and my heart will dance’. Keith asks for music which research shows improves symptoms of dementia such as depression, anxiety and agitation as well as evoking positive memories and emotions.
To maximise the benefits of creative arts and cultural activities, participation should:
• Be individually meaningful
• Be failure free
• Have an emphasis on the experience and the process rather than any product
• Be co-produced between practitioners and people living with dementia.
To harness the true value in these activities, good practice begins with relationships and getting to know about a person’s life and interests. Reluctance of many individuals to make art, sing, or dance often has its roots in a teacher’s judgement of their ability at school! Once these judgements are proved wrong, the results for participants include joy, smiles and laughter – besides increased self-confidence and self-esteem.
Will using arts and culture work for everyone?
As with any intervention to support the experience of living with dementia, it is very much about finding what works for each person in any given moment. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach, but with good person-centred practices and a creative and supportive approach, lightbulb moments will often follow.
John Killick, a poet who worked extensively with care home residents, reported that despite speaking in metaphors and using a poetic language of elation, wit and despair that is characteristic of cognitive impairment, residents had a lot to say but were often not listened to. One woman asserted, “The arts is all that’s left. Give them us!” reinforcing the viewpoint that arts and culture can help relatives, friends and staff make a difference to the quality of life of people living with dementia.
Building arts and culture into your practice
With such a wide range of arts and cultural activities to try, most people with dementia will find something that they enjoy doing. Specialist practitioners can provide expert input into activities that care providers and community groups may wish to run, so do find out who is practicing in your locality. Further tips to help you:
- Check out the events run by Arts for Dementia https://artsfordementia.org/events/
- Complete Future Learn’s free introductory course as part of their online suite of dementia courses https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/collections/dementia
- Join the Culture Health and Wellbeing Alliance https://www.culturehealthandwellbeing.org.uk/join-us which is a good source of information about arts for health and wellbeing generally.
- Send an email to info@creativedementia.org for a list of organisations offering arts for dementia in the UK.
‘Lay’ people can also develop skills to deliver some arts and cultural activities, and this is something we at Dementia Community are aiming to encourage during our one-day Creative Dementia Conference https://journalofdementiacare.co.uk/one-day-conference. This event includes expert speakers, interactive workshops and a range of take-away materials to enable attendees, including people living with dementia, to leave motivated, inspired and with new skills to incorporate arts and culture into their practice.
Find out more about the arts and culture in dementia care
The Journal of Dementia Care published a special arts issue for November/December 2024 that celebrated the arts in dementia care. It looked forward to new opportunities and looked back at over 31 years of articles in JDC on music, dance and movement, poetry and writing, drama and the visual arts. This special issue is freely available here https://journalofdementiacare.co.uk/issue/november-december-2024. Printed copies can also be ordered (while stocks last) by emailing info@dementiapublishing.community with your name and address, using a subject line of: ‘Hard Copy of November/December 2024 issue of JDC’.
Do also keep an eye on Dementia Community’s free webinar programme for 2025 which includes sessions relating to arts and culture https://journalofdementiacare.co.uk/events/webinars-2.
Website: https://journalofdementiacare.co.uk
BlueSky: @dementiacommunity.bsky.social
LinkedIn: @dementia-community
Facebook: @JournalOfDementiaCare
Twitter: @JDementiaCare
YouTube: @DementiaCommunity
See Dementia Community’s involvement with Care Innovation Summit.
