How to use music and art with a loved one living with dementia

(Aging Untold) — Music, dance, poetry, storytelling and art can still tap into emotion and long-held experiences for someone with dementia. While they do not cure dementia, they can support mood, dignity and connection. Start by looking locally Amy O’Rourke, an aging expert, said families can begin by searching for available resources in their own area. “Dance and dementia. Arts and dementia. Music and dementia,” O’Rourke suggested. She shared an experience of seeing the impact during her first job out of college. O’Rourke was an activity director, where residents took part in a bell choir at the time. “Each resident had a bell and the director would point, and you could just see the impact it had on them,” O’Rourke said. Don’t set expectations O’Rourke also described a caregiver who took a client with a memory impairment to an art class, and the client started producing pictures and watercolors. “She had never done art before. She had never drawn. She had never done any kind of artwor