Cognitive Dynamics has recently partnered with The Voice Library to pilot “Let Me Be Your Memory,” an audio reminiscence project with the Tuscaloosa Magnet Middle School in Alabama as a way to promote Alzheimer’s awareness and intergenerational relationships.

Poetry and bibliotherapy (the use of literary modalities to promote healing) is an effective means of improving quality of life and promoting dignity for the cognitively-impaired.

Please click the link below to listen to recited poems of Dr. Daniel C. Potts.  Once on the site, please use the following information, and then follow the instructions to select the recording you would like to hear:

Listen by computer

Listener ID-2304

Password-22084761

You may also listen by phone by calling the following number, toll-free: 1-888-343-2763, and using the same log in information.

As part of the school’s International Baccalaureate Program, middle school students were tasked with recording audio memories from their loved ones over the Thanksgiving holidays in an effort to raise awareness for National Alzheimer’s Awareness Month.

It is hoped that this concept, piloted in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, will be a model for other schools across the country, as a means to engage teenagers in Alzheimer’s awareness, and to promote intergenerational outreach.

Click on the link below to view the story, and scroll below the initial video to view the piece:

Let Me Be Your Memory

swirls to November’s windy wand,

swept along in a homeward spell.

Brushing by the old ones,

I, again, am green, though briefly so.

For we all change hues in autumn’s breeze.

And the heat of held hands

and thankful hearts

has cut away the cold.

Stuffing ourselves with the gravy of good,

we laugh again at dinnertime,

and for dessert, we cry…

True colors show

around the table

in the fall of the year.

“Now Thank We All Our God…”

for the time of turning.

Perhaps I mean

“Where is the you I know?”

Are these two the same?

Do both die slowly

in this death march of the mind,

this Dachau of dreams?

Is self peeled off in skins,

that which I’ve touched the first to go,

then deeper ones

known just to you?

In this retrograde revelation

have you met a boy that looks like you?

Do you know him:

his hopes, loves, reality;

is this at all familiar?

Now is all you have, I know.

But now is infinite and true.

May I meet you there,

whatever “you” I find?

May we be at home again…

together?

Can each successive “now”

make yourself known to you again,

and string staccato notes

into legato lines

that you can sing?

When skin has gone

is all that’s left a soul?

Is this when we must say…

Goodbye?

D. Potts, for National Alzheimer’s Month

Over the next several weeks students from Tuscaloosa Magnet School will capture reminiscences powered through The Voice Library’s website.  These memories, which can be recorded digitally on computer or digital recorder, or over the phone, will then be uploaded as MP3 recordings to a named library, which can be accessed by anyone given permission.

The resulting library of recordings will help to raise awareness for National Alzheimer’s Month.  Furthermore, intergenerational relationships will be fostered, and life stories of those with Alzheimer’s disease will be preserved at a time when they are being lost. Persons with the disease will be validated through the experience, and human dignity will be fostered.

The websites for The Voice Library and Tuscaloosa Magnet School are below:

http://www.thevoicelibrary.net/

http://blogs.tusc.k12.al.us/tmsm/school-info/

 At the conference, state-of-science reports were given from leaders in the field, and representing neurobiologists, geriatricians, gerontologists, neurologists, environmental design experts, art therapists, music therapists, bibliotherapists, drama therapists, dance and movement therapists, policy makers, statisticians, and representatives from several government agencies who are invested in this effort.  Discussions on method and design, models for successful programming, analysis on cost-effectiveness, and ideas for collaboration among different disciplines were put forth. 

This exciting conference gave the opportunity for participants to interact and give feedback, and signifies a new and important day for furthering arts interventions for quality of life for elderly Americans.

“Demonstrating the benefits of creative expression for patients living with acute or chronic illness, this volume provides a complete, practical introduction to medical art therapy. It presents evidence-based strategies for helping people of all ages—from young children to older adults—cope with physical and cognitive symptoms, reduce stress, and improve their quality of life. Detailed case material and approximately 100 drawings and other artwork illustrate ways to work with individuals and groups with specific health conditions and challenges, as well as their family members. Contributors are experienced art therapists who combine essential background knowledge with in-depth clinical guidance.”

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/art-therapy-and-health-care-cathy-a-malchiodi-phd-atr-bc-lpcc/1109719198

http://www.dmh.state.ms.us/calendar.htm

While sitting with her “Mum” after Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases took hold of the body and mind, Cathie Borrie caught precious glimpses of the spirit, initially jotting them on spare papers, but eventually crafting a beautiful story of them in The Long Hello: The Other Side of Alzheimer’s, and Looking into Your Voice: the Poetic and Eccentric Realities of Alzheimer’s.

Dr. Houston brings a lifetime of scholarship and remarkable faith to the task of caring for his wife. A member of C.S. Lewis’s inner circle and founding principal of Regent College in Vancouver, Houston speaks of his most recent challenge with an aura of tranquility that is awe-inspiring.

Read the whole blog post here: http://mariashriver.com/blog/2012/05/privilege-of-caregiving

Cathie Borrie, Daniel Potts, Judith Murray, Rita Houston and James Houston