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The Importance Of Art Therapy To Wellbeing Of People With Dementia

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Jyotsana Parajuli
GTY 609
Background and Significance
The number of people living with dementia worldwide was estimated to be 47.47 million in 2015, reaching 75.63 million in 2030 and 135.46 million in 2050 (WHO, 2015). As the disease progresses the person with dementia experiences loss in memory, certain personality traits, expressive abilities and other skills. Cognitive impairment eventually compromises the ability of person with dementia to carry out activities of daily living and other tasks in daily life. This decline in functional ability posits a huge challenge for maintaining health, wellbeing and quality of life of people with dementia. Therefore, issues related to wellbeing of people with dementia should be carefully examined and …show more content…

Art therapy enables people with dementia to express their feelings when words cannot (AATA, 2015). Art therapy explores the client’s feelings, resolves emotional conflicts and fosters their self-awareness with the use of art media, the creative process and the resulting finished artwork as a therapeutic and healing process. Furthermore, art therapy helps manage client’s behavior, develop social skills, improves reality orientation, and reduces anxiety and increase self-esteem. Art therapy benefits people of all ages facing different challenges in life and is an effective treatment for people experiencing developmental, medical, educational and social or psychological impairment (AATA, …show more content…

Phinney, Chaudhury & O’Connor (2007) examined what constitutes meaningful activity from the perspective of persons with dementia, and explored how they perceive its significance in their lives. They conducted an interpretive phenomenological analysis of multiple interviews and participant observation conducted with eight community-dwelling elders with mild to moderate dementia. The participants were involved in a wide range of activities including leisure pastimes, household chores, work related endeavors, and social involvements. Findings of the study suggested that familiarity of the social and physical environment promoted involvement in activities. This provided a sense of continuity for people with dementia, with implications for their quality of life and personhood. However, this study has some limitations. The interventions have tended to be evaluated in terms of their impact on observed behavioral and emotional responses. The question of the meaning of these activities for people with dementia has not been directly addressed. The findings of the study were based on a secondary analysis of data that were collected for a different purpose and therefore this study cannot claim to have presented a comprehensive picture of all possible activities and meanings for people with dementia and also this study was

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