A new book by Daniel C. Potts, MD, FAAN highlights Bringing Art to Life to celebrate the program’s 10th anniversary.
Bringing Art to Life (BATL)is a service-learning program developed in memory of Lester E. Potts, Jr. Its primary purpose is to honor and validate persons living with dementia and other cognitive disorders through art therapy, other expressive arts, and storytelling. Additional goals include facilitating the development of intergenerational, multicultural relationships; growing empathy, compassion, knowledge, and self-awareness in students via transformational educational paradigms; lessening stigma; providing respite for care partners; and laying a foundation for the ongoing engagement and enrichment of students, persons living with dementia, and their care partners in the broader community.
The book, Bringing Art to Life: Reflections on Dementia and the Transforming Power of Art and Relationships, published by Resource Publications (an imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers) highlights the story of Alzheimer’s artist, Lester Potts, as the inspiration for developing BATL. It describes the program, including original research showing the program’s effects on growing empathy and reducing dementia-related stigma. The book also discusses the spiritual side of care partnership, including the development of mindfulness, relationships, and self-awareness in creating a culture of compassion. Reflections and poetry about participants in the program are shared, as well. Finally, the author describes his own spiritual transformation and growth as a result of the relationships formed in the program.
Praising the book, Terrence Cascino, MD, past president of the American Academy of Neurology, “applauds Dr. Potts’s extraordinary commitment and dedication to caregivers, students, family, and patients afflicted with dementia. Even as a senior neurologist, I found this book changed my perception of the capabilities of people with dementia. This is a great read for anyone caring for individuals with these disorders.”
Vicki de Klerk-Rubin, executive director of theValidation Training Instituteand daughter of Naomi Feil, adds that “Bringing Art to Life is a book of passion; a description not only of magnificent dementia care but also of a man’s journey to finding greater compassion, spirituality, and a deep understanding of what Naomi Feil calls ‘the wisdom of the disoriented old-old.’ … There is much to learn, appreciate, and be inspired by in this book.”
Author, Daniel Potts, adds: “It was a pleasure to get this book together. There has been so much rich content in the program, and I feel honored to share some reflections about the wonderful people with whom we’ve become friends and experiences we’ve had together. I felt an obligation to write, as I am the only one who has been present at every art therapy session offered in our Tuscaloosa iteration of the program for the past decade. I hope these stories will be inspiring to others.”
The book is available in paperback, hard cover, and kindle at the following link:
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“Love Is Stronger Than Loss” is a new playlist of 7 songs written by Daniel C. Potts, MD, FAAN honoring the love of care partners and persons living with dementia.
Daniel was introduced by Cheryl Blanchard of Alzheimer’s Tennessee to her son, Brandon Blanchard, a musician and recording professional in Nashville, TN, who provided the recording, mixing, and orchestral arrangements for the project, with Daniel Potts on piano and vocals.
We hope that these songs and the stories behind them will be inspiring to any who are walking the road of care partnership through dementia.
Here is a blog which contains the poetry, the stories behind the songs, and Youtube links for the music:
Members of the Cognitive Dynamics Board of Directors have appeared as featured guests on podcasts and online interviews related to Alzheimer’s, dementia, aging, care giving, expressive arts, person-centered care, eldercare, advocacy, research, spirituality in dementia care, and other topics.
Bringing Art to Life-Chicago(BATL-C), Cognitive Dynamics Foundation’s intergenerational expressive arts program for persons living with dementia and student partners, re-opened in July for the first time since the pandemic began. Again partnering withChicago Methodist Senior Services, the program pairs residents who are living with dementia with student volunteers; this semester, we are working with students from Loyola University.
During the didactic portion of the class, students learn the neuroscience of Alzheimer’s and other dementias fromDr. Neelum Aggarwal, BATL-C lead faculty and Rush University neurologist, and BATL-C founder,Daniel C. Potts, MD, FAANlectures about person-centered care, memory and the use of the expressive arts in dementia care. Students experience virtual reality modules fromEmbodied Labs,which help to create empathic understanding for the lived experience of dementia and caregiving.
A new innovation this semester is a virtual museum experience in partnership with theYale UniversityArt Gallery, facilitated by their museum staff, with art directives to follow facilitated by art therapist,Angel C. Duncan, MA, MFT-ATR, Executive Arts Director of Cognitive Dynamics Foundation, who also lectures to the students about art therapy.
Students and their dementia partners will spend time in a sensory garden at CMSS, created in our last iteration of BATL-C, and some of the herbs will find their way into a meal for the program’s final celebratory dinner at the end of the semester.
BATL-C is made possible in part by a grant from theAlzheimer’s Foundation of America.Researchshows the program increases empathy in student participants and improves attitudes toward older adults and persons living with dementia.
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Bringing Art to Life – Chicago,a program of art therapy, STEM education, multi-cultural intergenerational relationships, virtual reality immersion, life story appreciation and person-centered care started in 2016, has added a collaborative innovation: an urban sensory garden on the campus of Wesley Place memory care facility atChicago Methodist Senior Services.
Bringing Art to Life – Chicago, a service – learning program for high school students in the Chicago, IL area, engages students and persons living with Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia in art and other expressive arts therapies, reminiscence and life story-sharing. Students form multicultural, intergenerational relationships with their dementia partners, and participate in comprehensive educational sessions about dementia, including appropriate methods of interacting with persons living with dementia, etc.
Bringing Art to Life – Chicago is a collaboration between Cognitive Dynamics Foundation andChicago Methodist Senior Services, and has received support from theAlzheimer’s Foundation of AmericaandHigh Socks for Hope Foundation. Medical students from Rush University, the University of Chicago and the University of Illinois serve as facilitators of the program. Through the technology ofEmbodied Labs, students have virtual reality experiences living with dementia as part of their training.
During this summer’s session of Bringing Art to Life – Chicago, our high school student participants and their partners living with dementia are exploring the wonders of nature together as they plant and enjoy a sensory garden at Chicago Methodist Senior Services. The sensory garden complements the experience they are having together in art therapy, and the developing relationships help to combat stigma and build empathy.
The photos below were taken on 7-27-2019 at the sensory garden.
Cognitive Dynamics is pleased to offer our award-winning 27:30 minute documentary short, Do You Know Me Now?, for free access on our Youtube Channel, CognitiveDynamics1, at the link below.
Do You Know Me Now? shows ways in which care partners can connect in the moment and have a mutually fulfilling relationship – one which discovers the person beneath the disease and builds upon remaining abilities and personality traits. Life is about relationships, and these relationships need not be lost due to Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias.
Do You Know Me Now? explores relationships and personhood, taking a novel look at what it means to be a person with dementia who is still very much alive and possessing those traits upon which relationships may be built, even late into the disease. The project highlights stories of people living with dementia and their loved ones who have found ways to connect — who have discovered joy, beauty and self-expression despite the losses.
Do You Know Me Now? reminds us that while cognitive ability diminishes, deep personhood lives on.
The film, directed and co-produced by Canadian film maker, Judith Murray, and edited and co-produced by American film maker, Brian Covert, features Ed and Naomi Feil (Founder of Validation Therapy), Rita and James Houston (Founder of Regent College), Joan and Cathie Borrie (Author of The Long Hello), and Lester and Ethelda Potts (Parents of Cognitive Dynamics Founder, Daniel C. Potts, MD, FAAN).
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Cognitive Dynamics Founder and President Daniel C. Potts, MD, FAAN was a recent guest of Mike Good (Together In This) for a podcast titled “The Importance of Dementia Compassionate Culture.” In the podcast, Good and Potts discuss the story and art of Lester E. Potts, Jr., an Alabama saw miller who discovered a hidden talent for watercolor painting after the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s, and how this discovery led to new insights about the persistence of personhood and creativity in persons living with dementia.
The program created in memory of Lester Potts, Bringing Art to Life, was then discussed as a means to grow empathy and create a culture of compassion in dementia care through art therapy, storytelling, and the building of intergenerational relationships. The program has two active locations, at the University of Alabama and in Chicago (Bringing Art to Life: Chicago), and is under development at other sites.
A team from BATL-C will present the program from the standpoint of the student director (Angela Ray), neurologist and co-founder of the program (Daniel C. Potts, MD, FAAN), expressive arts therapist (Allison DeSantis, MA, LCPC) facility administrator (Ann Brennan), and a Chicago-based cognitive neurologist lead faculty (Neelum T. Aggarwal, MD).
The Bringing Art to Life (BATL) Research Team presented an abstract titled “The Effects of an Intergenerational Service Learning Experience on Ageist Attitudes” highlighting outcomes data from University of Alabama Honors students enrolled inUH 300: Art to Lifeat the 21stIAGG World Congress of Gerontology and Geriatricsin San Francisco on July 25, 2017.
UH 300: Art to Lifeis an Honors service learning class offered at the University of Alabama as part of our foundation’sBringing Art to Life(BATL) program. Students learn about Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, participate in theVirtual Dementia Tour, volunteer at anadult dementia daycare center, participate in mindfulness activities, develop an appreciation for the challenges of caregiving, and learn the tenets of person-centered care. In the experiential part of the course, students are paired with persons living with dementia, and participate in weekly art therapy sessions facilitated by an experienced art therapist. Students develop relationships with their participants, learn their life stories, and create a leather-bound life legacy book usingLifeBio.com, presenting this to their participants and their families in acelebratory dinnerat the end of the semester.
A research team from theAlabama Research Institute on Agingand the UA Department of Psychology led by Keisha Ivey, MA and Rebecca Allen, PhD has been conducting research since 2015, and the current abstract addresses student data from pre-and post surveys measuring empathy and attitudes toward older adults, persons living with dementia and community service.
Compared with student controls from a psychology of aging course, BATL students exhibited statistically significant improvement in attitudes towards persons living with dementiaand toward community service, as well as greater increases in empathy.
Research will be ongoing, and will involve analysis of the program’s impact on participating persons living with dementia and their caregivers.
For more information on Bringing Art to Life, read this Huffington Post article byAngel C. Duncan, MA, MFT-ATR, the Executive Arts Director for Cognitive Dynamics who helped to create the program: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/angel-duncan/bringing-art-to-life-an-i_b_9619446.html
From left to right, Dr. Anne Halli-Tierney, Dr. Rebecca Allen, and Dr. Daniel C. Potts at the 21st IAGG World Congress of Gerontology and Geriatrics
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To improve the quality of life of persons with cognitive disorders (such as Alzheimer’s disease) and their caregivers through education, research, and support of innovative care models which promote human dignity, especially therapies employing the expressive arts and storytelling.
For more information about Cognitive Dynamics and what we do pleasecontact us.
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