Every month, NCCA features an artist in the NCCA Network Newsletter.  This month, Karen Vierneisel's work was featured.  

As a retirement coach, Karen speaks to groups about the importance of knowing one’s purpose and turning one’s dreams into reality.  So two years into retirement, she began taking art classes at the Go Get Your Smock studio in Ravenswood Manor.  In painting, Karen found her new purpose.  She is now living her dream of being an artist.

Besides studying at Go Get Your Smock, Karen has also studied with sea scape painter Joyce Ortner in California, landscape painter Didier Nolet, and more recently with urbanscape artist Robert Brasher.  In Fall 2008, The North Shore Art League accepted two of her 12 x 12 oil panels in its juried show “Inchworks.”  During the Old Town Art Fair last June, her 16 x 20 acrylic landscape, “Santa Rosa Mountain Trail,” sold at the Old Town School of Art’s student/faculty show.   

You can see more of Karen's work at www.wasser-flow.blogspot.com

The Geezers’ Crusade
David Brooks describes the increasing benefits of aging by debunking commonly believed myths.  Brooks described the older adult’s brain as one that can continue to create new connections and neurons throughout life.  He references studies that describe aging as a period of development where gender roles begin to merge and personalities become more vivid and distinct in tune with who they really are.  Brooks cites a study done at University of California, Berkeley which conducted a 50-year-follow-up of people who were studied when they were younger, and found that participants had not surrendered in their older age, but instead became more outgoing and self-confident.  Brooks explains these positive aspects of aging, while pointing out the fact that the increasing number of older adults will also take a toll on healthcare and the overall financial stability of the United States and provides a call to arms for older adults everywhere.  “It may seem unrealistic – to expect a generation to organize around the cause of nonselfishness.  But in the private sphere, you see it every day.  Old people now have the time, the energy and, with the Internet, the tools to organize,” said Brooks.
The New York Times, February 2, 2010
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Dealing with Dementia: Thanks for the Memories
Caregivers are often searching for creative ways to connect with their loved ones that have Alzheimer’s.  Tandridge Heights, a senior care center, incorporates a ‘Memory Lane’ unit, a place full of vintage pieces including old handbags, a typewriter, posters of famous actors and actresses including Marilyn Monroe and Marlon Brando and collages of photographs of the residents.  Staff invites people with Alzheimer’s to speak about their past through ‘reminiscence sessions.’  The staff also focuses on creative ways of speaking to residents and insights into understanding their behavior.  Penny Garner, creator of Specialised Early Care for Alzheimer’s (SPECAL) focuses on the positive emotions associated with past experiences.  Garner explains an example where a woman who moved 25 times during her marriage constantly opened and emptied drawers and cupboards creating a chaotic environment.  Once provided with a trunk, she would neatly pack and unpack the trunk.  As her disease progressed she began using a handbag to pack and unpack, which turned into the folding and unfolding of a handkerchief.   
The Independent, February 16, 2010
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This article was written by NCCA member, Susan Swanson, M.A., ATR
Written in Memory of Florence and Hy

I am an expressive arts therapist and have been working with clients diagnosed with dementia for 30 years.  I bring programs to assisted living facilities, nursing homes, day care centers and residential facilities. Most of my clients are elderly but some have been diagnosed with dementia at a younger age.  What Is Dementia?  Dementia is a non-specific illness in which areas of cognition are affected, it may be memory, attention, language, and problem solving. It is normally required to be present for at least 6 months to be diagnosed; cognitive dysfunction that has been seen less than weeks, must be termed delirium. In all types of general cognitive dysfunction, higher mental functions are affected first in the process.  In the later stages of the condition, individuals may be disoriented in time, not knowing what day of the week, day of the month, or even what year it is,  not knowing where they are, not knowing who they are or recognize others around them.

What must that feel like to the individuals who are dealing with dementia?   My clients have talked of feeling confused, lost, lonely, isolated and scared.  They feel they have lost themselves, their families and things that are familiar to them.  Many have lost the ability to form a sentence or an idea, they feel depressed, indecisive and hopeless.  

 I can not imagine living with dementia and waking up in a state of confusion every day.  I am constantly trying to think of something else I can bring to give them a memory, a smile, or a pleasant thought.  Every year I find more items and projects to bring to work.  I am now carrying about 70 pounds of materials to make sure my groups are motivated, engaged, and hopeful.  Instead of feeling confused, frustrated, anxious, and isolated I want to bring creative activities and materials that accentuate the present moment and I want that present moment to be full of energy, memories, joy and feelings of hope. 

As an expressive arts therapist I bring art, movement, dance, music and psychodrama skills and activities to the facilities where I work.  I have seen the benefits of these therapies and find those who are touched by these modalities are more in touch with reality, less anxious, more trusting, communicative, and less confused.  Non verbal expression as well as verbal expression is encouraged and often welcomed when cognitive abilities have been diminished.  Non verbal communication includes eye contact, touch, motion, facial expression, offering of smells and various tactile experiences.

With art an individual’s memory can be stimulated by the making of a flower, a heart, or a Christmas bulb.  They end up with something tangible they can feel, touch and that may help them think of the past, communicate feelings and thoughts, it provides something real to show to others and something others can respond to with them. 

With dance therapy they enjoy a broader range of movement, music from around the world, rhythm, and expression.  With wonderful music they dance as a spontaneous reaction, which provides exercise, deep breathing, relaxation, body alignment, and balance and body awareness.   Exercise can improve your mood and give you a general feeling of well being. What is overlooked many times as a benefit of exercise is the body’s production of endorphins during exercise.  Endorphins are endogenous opioid polypeptide compounds that are produced by the pituitary gland and the hypothalamus in individuals during exercise.  They resemble the opiates in their ability to produce analgesia and a feeling of well-being.  Endorphins work as natural pain relievers.  It is this relationship between exercise and the release of endorphins that may be responsible for the so-called “runners high” that many fitness enthusiast experience.  You don’t have to run to get the benefits of endorphins but moderate exercise will also produce endorphins.  Many of my clients say that the pain that they came to the group with is gone by the time the group is over.  The physicians tell me that they do not have to medicate these individuals as much as in the past.

During movement and music therapy I bring musical instruments, hats, scarves, canes, and sunglasses.  Who doesn’t remember God Bless America? And who has not seen a patriotic hat of red white and blue.  While singing a familiar song and wearing a familiar hat it is impossible not to feel part of the here and now as well as part of the group.   When singing the theme from Rawhide you may remember the show and by wearing a cowboy hat, and bandana while moving like you are roping a cow, you have to feel that you are in the show. 

While listening to swing or big band music clients often remember songs and how they used to dance when they were young.  They try it again and are surprised they still remember.  Most love wearing the hats and acting out parts they remember from songs, movies or Broadway plays.  They are the stars of the show, spontaneous, and care free for the moment.  The smiles on their faces shows that for that moment they are not confused, scared, disoriented.  They are in the present and feel joy.

 I often play various sounds for the group to get them to visualize being in a different place.  As they are getting sensory information from the sound of the waves crashing upon the shore, I give them a shell to remind them what they might find there.

When working with the elderly who’s affect is often dull and cognitive abilities have been diminished, it is a joy to see their faces light up when I take their hands to dance, give them something familiar to hold, put a paintbrush in their hand, write a poem from the words they remember, give them the picture I took while they were wearing those silly hats.

So that is what’s up with all those crazy hats and the 70 pounds of materials I carry to work everyday?  I will carry, bring, and put on anything to see my groups engaged and reminisce with a smile.

  -- Susan Swanson, M.A., ATR
     Expressive Arts Therapist
     Creativity Consultant
     Find out more about Susan Swanson's work HERE

Disheartened by her elderly mother's escalating dementia,writer and photographer Connie Springer wondered if we all end up like this if we live long enough.  Springer devoted two years to interviewing and photographing 28 individuals in their 90s including one man who swam across the Ohio River in his 90s, another a Catholic nun, the former president of the University of Cincinnati, among others.  Springer found that her interviewees were lively, goal oriented, caring individuals, as shown in her photographs.  Read more about Springer's work and exhibit.

Our very own Gay Hanna discusses the steady rise of creative arts programs for older adults in communities throughout the nation despite the creative aging field being a 'blue ocean,' one that is relatively new to the arts and healthcare world.  She discusses the national reach of NCCA in educating professionals in how to creatively engage older adults as well as NCCA's role in bridging the gap between arts and aging organizations.  Hanna also describes the future of funding for creative aging arts programs. Read the article HERE in Aging Today, the bimonthly newspaper of the American Society on Aging.