Dementia Arts Mapping: observational methods for documenting impacts of poetry and recreation in care settings

ABSTRACT

Background

Long-term care homes for older and disabled adults, including those who are living with dementia, facilitate a diversity of recreational activities and program as social interventions. The relationships between interventional elements and participant impacts are not well understood.

Methods

This paper explores a poetry methodology and reports the findings from a pilot test of Dementia Arts Mapping, a novel ethnographic observational technique, to better understand impacts of poetry and recreation on people living with dementia in long-term care settings. Between 2017 and 2020, at 17 skilled nursing facilities throughout Wisconsin, researchers situated within care homes observed participants during diverse activities.

Results

We found poetry workshops surpassed other activities in eliciting self-expression.

Conclusions

Dementia Arts Mapping is an effective instrument for generating insights about dementia care and may be further enhanced for future use in research to inform care provision to foster meaningful engagement with people with dementia.

KEYWORDS:

• Participatory arts
• dementia
• creativity
• poetry
• personhood

Acknowledgments

We wish to thank the residents and staff of these Wisconsin nursing homes: Bridges of Appleton, Appleton: Bria of Trinity Village, Milwaukee; Congregational Home, Brookfield; Crossroads, Waupaca; Hales Corner Care Center, Hales Corners; Luther Manor, Milwaukee; River Pines Altoona; Saint John’s On The Lake, Milwaukee; St. Paul Elder Services, Kaukauna: Southpointe Healthcare Center, Greenfield; Terrace at St. Francis, Milwaukee; St. Mary’s Care Center, Madison; St. Clare Meadows Care Center, Baraboo; Jewish Home, Milwaukee; The Villa at Bradley Estates, Milwaukee Villa Loretto, Mt Calvary; and Willow Crest Health Services, Milwaukee. We would also like to thank Bader Philanthropies and the State of Wisconsin Department of Health Services Division of Quality Assurance. Finally, the authors would like to thank their families.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the State of Wisconsin Department of Health Services on behalf of the Division of Quality Assurance, under Grant F-01593 (08/2015) and Bader Philanthropies, under grant #15686.