Considering the shock, grief and anxiety an Alzheimer’s diagnosis can bring to the person and his or her family, it’s sad that there often seems little we can do to help them other than say “I’m sorry.” However, NPR.org reports that Chicago’s Tony Award winning Lookingglass Theater Company has found a way to do more than say “I’m sorry.” They are offering an improv, an in-the-moment theater program for people with early Alzheimer’s disease.
Most of life’s activities seem to require the ability to plan ahead, to remember the past, or both.
Not improv.
According to Mary O’Hara, a social worker at the Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease Center at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine:
Improv is all about being in the moment, which for someone with memory loss, that is a very safe place…Maybe thinking about the past and trying to remember makes the person a little anxious or even a bit sad because their memory is failing. And maybe thinking about the future too much is also anxiety-provoking. So being in the moment is such a safe and a good place to be.
Northwestern University researchers are collaborating with the Lookingglass Theatre Company on the program. While there have already been theater programs that use improv for Alzheimer’s patients in the later stages of the disease, this approach is unique because it is for early-stage patients.
Early Alzheimer’s: tapping into creativity
People with early Alzheimer’s retain their native creativity, as well as their sense of humor and ability to have fun. Improv taps into these resources. Improv can help people use the most of what they still have, rather than focus on what they have lost. Since improv doesn’t require memorization, this approach frees people with early stage Alzheimer’s to go with the moment, where memory is not an issue.
Researchers don’t expect this experience to stop or even slow the progression of AD. However they are addressing whether or not “engaging the creative abilities of these early-stage patients helps their quality of life.”
The arts in general, including trips to museums, painting pictures, sculpting and singing, have, in other studies, been shown to improve the lives of those living with AD. If that is so, why not improv? Anything that can give people a sense of accomplishment and some joy has got to be good.
Posted in Alzheimer’s, Dementia | 1 Comment »Tags: Alzheimer’s, Dementia
