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.

Melita Belgrave and Robin Rio presented “A Storm in the Desert” in their sound workshop at Create/Change: AZ Institute: Transforming Elder Care Through Creative Engagement in May 2017. Melita Belgrave is pictured in the video

About 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. Basting wondered about their application to older adults for whom memorization is not a viable approach to storytelling.

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. TimeSlips certification can be embedded in high school and college courses.

TimeSlips has been described as a joyful experience for all those involved. By reducing the marginalization that memory loss may induce, TimeSlips creatively encourages “replacing the pressure to remember with the freedom to imagine.”

For more information about TimeSlips, visit the website: http://www.timeslips.org