Create/Change: AZ Institute
Melita Belgrave and Robin Rio presented this activity in their sound workshop at Transforming Elder Care Through Creative Engagement in May 2017.
Create/Change was a 3-day intensive institute developed by Anne Basting and the TimeSlips team, who focus on transforming care for elders through creative engagement.
The Penelope Project
Anne Basting’s “Creative Community of Care” project The Penelope Project engaged residents, both living with and not living with dementia, their families, staff, and administrators of a continuing care retirement community. This project made dementia normal such that dementia was not perceived as a barrier to creating beauty and meaning (Basting, 2018, p. 749).
Promoting Resilience through Creative Engagement – Aging Life Care Association
Over the past 15 years, Anne Basting, PhD., and Susan H. McFadden, Ph.D. have collaborated on the research and development of programs for people with dementia that use creative engagement as a means of shifting the paradigm of care from managing behaviors to engaging individuals and building community. Engaging in creative activities—storytelling, painting songwriting, dance, drama—enables people with memory loss to express their strengths. These activities not only reflect resilience; they may also reinforce it, biologically, psychologically, and socially. This PDF provides a list of programs for creative engagements with People Living with Dementia.
TimeSlips
TimeSlips is a non-profit program that infuses elder care with creativity and meaningful connection. A storytelling method developed for people living with dementia and memory loss, it privileges imagination over memory, providing a space for stories to be inventive and unconstrained by remembering events of the past. Established in 1998 in Milwaukee, WI, by Anne Basting, gerontologist and Professor of Theatre, TimeSlips was inspired by improvisation and drama techniques.
The TimeSlips method provides simple and effective prompts to facilitate storytelling. It provides images to discuss, creative questions, Creativity Journals, and a variety of other tools that encourage imaginative thinking and creating stories. This person-centered, creative engagement program provides meaningful and fun ways to reflect, create and socialize. TimeSlips has held over 12,000 storytelling sessions to date. It also offers online or in-person individual certification for facilitators, family care givers, care staff, students, volunteers, and educators.
Covid in the House of Old
Covid in the House of Old is a travelling art exhibition that uses storytelling methods, including seven wooden storytelling chairs, podcasts, and more, to remember and commemorate the lives of older adult Canadians living in long term care settings that were indelibly shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The project, which was created by Megan J. Davis (curator, writer, interviewer) with Hiroki Tanaka (artist, musician, digital creator) and Kohen Hammond (audio editor, podcast producer), was inspired by practices that Davis developed with colleagues at Madness Canada, which are about giving voice, making space, and emergent design. Ultimately, the project asks Canadians to witness the ways in which we as a society have failed vulnerable elders and those who deliver crucial daily care to them, and urges us to take action. To begin, please consider signing their petition to transform long-term residential care in Canada to prioritize quality of life.
Seniors – Adding Life to Years (SALTY) Project
SALTY is a pan-Canadian, research project that examines clinical, social, critical and policy perspectives on quality of life for residents living in Canadian long-term care (LTC). With a diverse team which includes LTC representatives and stakeholders ranging from policy makers, clinicians, LTC residents, care aides and family members, the SALTY project represents a team based integrated knowledge translation (iKT) approach to address complex and pressing challenges in Canadian long-term care. This video introduces SALTY.
A version of an illustration by Naheen Ahmed featuring a silhouette of hands drawing against a muted, green-blue background.
