ART AS THERAPY

 Faced with declining skills and increased isolation, maintaining  connections to the world becomes increasingly important to the  elderly. The arts can provide opportunity for improved self-awareness  and communication. Issues such as loss, illness, depression and  restoration of hope are addressed through therapy in music and art.  According to a National Endowment for the Arts concept paper, NEA  studies show that incorporating the arts into health care benefits both  patients and caregivers. Art-related activities in nursing facilities,  hospitals and hospices can help patients relax, socialize, find solace  or express grief, loss and other emotions, as well as help rejuvenate  caregivers experiencing depression, fatigue and burnout.  Some research  has shown that patients engaged in creative activities require less pain  medication and experience fewer bouts of depression. “The arts have an  extraordinary ability to enhance our lives, to help us heal and to bring  us comfort in times of great stress,” said NEA chairman Dana Gioia. “We  must reconnect the arts with the actual human existence that Americans  lead, the journeys we take in life which lead us through hospitals, to  hospices, to the end of life.”Visual art, music, theatre and dance have  proven effective in stimulating memory recall which contributes to  reminiscence and satisfaction with life, positive changes in mood and  emotional states, a sense of control over life through successful  experiences, anxiety and stress reduction, and pain and discomfort  management.  Music, for instance, promotes rhythmic and continuous  physical movement and vocal fluency as an adjunct to physical  rehabilitation and offers opportunities to interact socially with  others. The arts can reach even those seniors resistant to other  treatment approaches due to the familiarity, predictability and feelings  of security associated with music. "The degree to which function can be  recovered is phenomenal and we are just tapping in to the extent that  we can get recovery following stroke or injury or disease. We hope that  music might play a particularly important role in helping the  regeneration of those cells, in helping the individual learn to  interpret the pattern and essentially to help that person learn again,"  says Joseph Aresso, Ph.D., Vice Chairman, Department of Neuroscience,  Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York.