Make It Happen

High-quality artistic stimulation elevates people, their families and carers above the stresses of dementia. Stepping into arts venue is in itself inspirational. If you would like to initiate arts activities for people in the early stages of dementia, and their carers, Arts 4 Dementia advises:

Plan a series of weekly intergenerational arts workshops for up to 24 participants, six to twelve people with dementia and their carers, preceeded by a training session for volunteers.

Contact the education manager of your local arts venue or organisation, who may already provide activities for people over sixty and/or outreach for more advanced dementia in care settings. They may well have the facilities, educators and volunteers necessary to run this new outreach, and welcome the opportunity to develop their work for continuing professional development. If the venue is a library, community centre or village hall, without educational facilities, it is advisable to set up a

Partnership project with your local arts college, whose students may wish to a) Lead the activity under guidance as a postgraduate project, with full monitoring and evaluation,or b)Provide volunteers
If possible, offer workshops free, and apply for local arts funding.
Please ensure good accessibility at your venue.

Include in your plan:

CRB registrations for all working with vulnerable adults, which takes up to three months
Dementia training for your course leaders (artists, musicians, actors, dancers) and volunteer supporters.
Warm welcome to partipants, keep eye contact and involvement.
It is a good idea to give participants a take home object, recording or idea for enjoyable, stimulating discussion at home, to sustain interest between sessions.
Monitor each session.*
A final, failure-free - possibly shared - performance, or finished work, for ultimate stimulation.
Offer incentive to participants to return to venue, for varied activities, new sessions.

For referrals, contact local community mental health teams, memory clinics, GPs surgeries and local branches of the Alzheimer’s Society and Dementia UK.

Publicise your activity in your local paper, parish newsletter, arts and health organisations and upload your event on to the Arts 4 Dementia website.

*Monitoring and Evaluation is important for sustainability. Your team should monitor each session, seek participants’ consent to quote their words verbatim or use their photographs to encourage others to pursue artistic engagement. Having awakened your participants’ interest, use your final evaluation to continue or develop the project.

Make It Happen

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