“We’re creating a poem about love, and I want to ask you, when you hear the word love, what do you think of? What comes to mind for you?”
“My children.”
Friendship and connection compose the Alzheimer’s Poetry Project, a program founded in 2004. Appleton Health Care Center (Appleton, WI) and other dementia care facilities are participating in what project founder Gary Glazner calls a “call-and-response” approach to sparking engagement and creativity in residents who have dementia. In a two-part workshop, a session leader recites well-known poems with residents, and then engages residents in using the recited poems as inspiration for creating a new poem.
Check out the video below in which Gary works with residents to craft a poem about love—and incites laughter and fun in the process.
Learn more about the
Alzheimer’s Poetry Project on their website.
Get
resources to help you provide high-quality dementia care.