Golden girls: how beauty therapy boosts self-esteem in care homes

The nurse-led nonprofit program Alta helps Black faith communities in Georgia run dementia-friendly congregations. The programming includes things like adapting services to be shorter with more music, educating community members about dementia, and $1,000 for things like resources and events.

Connecting with art enriches the lives of patients struggling with dementia and Alzheimers. Across Germany, several programs are using art to stimulate the minds of an aging population. At the Lehmbruck Museum in Duisburg, seniors meet to discuss art pieces that affect them. Elsewhere, in Bonn, the Demezionen theater ensemble performs for retirement homes. And even clowns can bring a positive atmosphere to seniors struggling with dementia!

Diversion murals—trompe l’oeil paintings on doorways—are being used in long-term care facilities to quell dementia patients’ exit seeking behavior. Rather than using stop signs or tape, the murals are a way to address this behavior in a way that also improves residents’ quality of life.

Bogotá's Manzanas del Cuidado (Caregiving Blocks) provides free services like education, counseling, and skills training at 25 neighborhood locations to reduce the burden on women caregivers, successfully empowering participants to complete high school, gain new skills, and find employment opportunities. It's become a pioneering model in Latin America for recognizing unrenumerating labors. Read this article in Spanish here: https://solu.news/zfxr

At intergenerational care facilities, early learning programs co-locate with senior homes, giving students and care residents plenty of opportunities to interact. Research shows this type of intergenerational program can have physical and cognitive benefits for both the adults and the children involved in them.

At Lovecraft, adults with disabilities have the opportunity to create and sell their art while learning important life skills such as communication in the process. The organization has served 40 adults since opening in 2018.

To better serve patients struggling with dementia, a hospital in Berlin established a department of geriatrics and began screening "patients for cognitive impairments upon admission, providing them with trained volunteers for personal support and non-pharmacological interventions to prevent delirium." This course of action has helped the hospital to diagnose cases earlier and offer dementia-specific care for patients, which consequently has reduced the prescribing of drugs for these patients.

Senior citizens in Los Angeles are coping with isolation during these times of social distancing by learning how to use technology that will connect them to their loved ones. Technology training specifically geared to the elderly include lessons about social media, making zoom calls, and using tablets and smart phones. Seniors are also being supported through home deliveries and weekly phone calls just to check in and say 'hi'.

Living with dementia can often lead to loneliness for not just those inflicted, but also the caregivers involved. To help create a community around this, the Ypsilanti Senior Center has started a monthly Memory Cafe that serves as a place for others in these situations to converse and connect.

The Netherlands is trying an alternative strategy to hospitalization for dementia patients. Instead of home care and hospitalization, patients live in group care facilities, which use stress-reduction techniques and calming cues to reduce the negative symptoms of dementia. There’s no cure for dementia, but their methods are effective in reducing the medication and restraints necessary for patients.