The objective of the project Art4Alz is to develop educational activities aimed at improving the welfare of people with Alzheimer's and their caregivers, also contributing to trigger a change in the social perception of the disease. What a person with Alzheimer's basically needs is a caregiver who can take care of him, and a society that is dementia-friendly. Actually most of the symptoms of dementia (above all those that we can work to improve) are not a direct result of the disease, but they depend on the inability to adequately respond to the demands of the outside world (excess disabilities). To obtain a gain from the point of view of the welfare of a person with dementia, it appears necessary to bridge the gap between its enormous residual capacity (at any level greater than apparent: observation skills, emotional intelligence, relationship skills, creativity and even expressive skills and communication, although not always through verbal language) and the difficulty, for caregivers, to adjust their methods of communication and their relational demands on the changed conditions of the people in their care. It is essential therefore to focus not on the needs and abilities of the patient, but on those of the dyad patient-caregiver. Therefore, objectives of project Art4Alz are: a) help caregivers to establish a suitable relationship (educational relationship) developing a communication, as effective as possible, through a guided reflection, verified in an experiential way, about all the possible modes of communication (verbal, non-verbal, gestural, corporal, facial expressions, touch, movement...), explored from encounters with art in museums. b) at the same time, the project Art4Alz wants to train museum educators and educators engaged in the geriatric field to enable them to develop museum access programs suitable for individuals living with dementia and their caregivers. The benefit of working with art is demonstrated by the experience gained: the museum projects for people with dementia (ours and those with which we have explored in recent years) have shown the effectiveness of artistic experience (understood as a complex cultural experience, ranging from the encounter with the works of art to creative and expressive activities) in causing an 'experiential reflection' constantly subjected to assessment: an exploration of the possibilities of communication with that person, in those conditions. Specific objective is the creation of educational resources aimed at educators and caregivers. A group of around 320 people, including museum educators, geriatric educators, caregivers and people with dementia, will be involved in each country in the process of developing, evaluating and finalizing the educational material. A considerably bigger number will be reached through multiplier events and dissemination activities. A joint staff event will be held in Florence to share skills and experiences and develop a model for a museum program dedicated to people with Alzheimer's, focusing on the caregiver. Later, the model will be experimented at local level by each partner. Building on the results of experimentation, the project will produce two intellectual outputs: - A4A online course about how to design and build museum programs for people with dementia with special attention to the caregivers; - on-line manual dedicated to family and professional caregivers and museum educators, on how to communicate with people with dementia through art. Multiplier events will be organized in each partner country with the goal of promoting the educational resources created in Art4Alz. The conference will also provide a visit to the museum host, where working methods will be illustrated in a practical way to attendees. Working methodology, flexible and open, is based on the exchange of expertise between the partners. The development of proposals of museum activities, addressed to the caregivers and the people they care for, is the result of a shared work, that brings together the experience and expertise of all partners. The assets are then tested and from this trial emerge guidelines around which we build the platform for e-learning. Main results of the project are: - course for educators and handbook for families; - training of a group of 24 people as part of the an experimental training program for educators - another group of 10 caregivers from each country will use the handbook and evaluate it - improved skills in using elearning for participant institutions - positive impact is expected on participants in the pilot run: improved well-being, better communication skills with patients, social inclusion - contribution to building a "dementia-friendly" society As a consequence of the project, it is to be expected that methodologies about improving communication between caregivers and patients through activities based on art will become more widespread and object of further development
The main objectives of the project are to develop educational tools and activities aimed at promoting the wellbeing of people with dementia and their family and professional carers through art and museum programmes. In this way we intend to help trigger a change in the social perception of dementia and to build a "dementia friendly" community. The idea behind MA&A is that art, considered as a complex cultural and relational experience, and the museum, conceived as an inclusive space for informal learning, can help to develop new strategies and ways of communication and relationship with people with dementia. International partners of the project are: the Marino Marini Museum of Florence (project leader) since 2012 engaged in accessible programming for people with dementia and their carers and in the training of educators and carers; the Lehmbruck Museum in Duisburg, the first museum in Europe to offer programmes for people living with dementia, with a great deal of experience in training museum educators and in art practice with people with dementia and their carers; the Butler Gallery in Kilkenny, a modern and contemporary art gallery where dementia accessible programming has been a key priority since 2012, when the museum became a founding partner of the Azure Network, which seeks to expand opportunities for people with dementia to engage in cultural life in Ireland; the NGO "Socialiniai meno projektai", the pioneer of museum accessibility for people with dementia in Lithuania and ZISPB NGO (VšĮ Žmogiškųjų išteklių stebėsenos ir plėtros biuras), which has a great deal of experience in the field of training geriatric operators and socioal workers; Euridea, a training agency that has provided the workgroup with experience in managing European projects. The first steps were the recognition of the measures taken to address dementia in each partner country, at national and local level, and the qualitative analysis of the training needs of project recipients. We set out from here to focus on the objectives and share website and outputs design: “MA&A training course” for museum educators and geriatric activity coordinators who want to develop museum programmes for people with Alzheimer’s and their carers; “MA&A Handbook”: an online or downloadable and printable toolkit for family or professional carers that provides useful tools on how to communicate with people with dementia through the arts. Transnational meetings were fundamentals for the implementation of the project. We organised one meeting in each country, distributed over the two years of work in relation to the needs of the project. The meetings fostered a fruitful and significant exchange of visions, ideas, strategies, knowledge and practices. The Learning event organised in Florence in March 2016 has proposed to deepen the theme of how art can help to develop new strategies and ways of communication with people with dementia. The event allowed the partners to share practical methodologies, experiences and facilitation strategies for outputs development. It also offered the opportunity to hold an international conference not scheduled at the time of the application, with more than 200 people attending. Pilot activities have been designed not only for testing, but also for the development of outputs through an innovative and participatory approach that provided the active involvement of people with dementia and their carers. Evaluation of all phases of the project, and particularly outputs assessment, offered key elements for finalization. The impact of MA&A project was very significant and exceeded expectations. Through the project, partner organizations favored the access of people living with dementia and their carers to meaningful and intense cultural experiences and consolidated their relationships with the community and local stakeholders. Among the unexpected results we can point out that in Italy, following the pilot experimentation of Output 1, some important museums such as the Florence Cathedral Museum, the Pecci Center for Contemporary Art and the Prato Textile Museum and the network of Empolese Valdelsa museums have started new programmes for people with dementia that have already involved about 100 people in one month. The project contributes to spreading a new perception of dementia, to break down the stigma, to create a "dementia friendly" society and to network museums offering accessible programmes to people with dementia and their carers.