FREE Colouring Print out -Activities for the Elderly & Dementia

Watch this space…in the next few days I will posting FREE hand drawn colouring sheets to use in your residential home or workshops with the elderly and those with dementia. Please comment if you would be interested in receiving some for free...

You can now find these print out sheets by clicking HERE 

Hope you enjoy them! There will be more added on a regular basis.

Spread the word!

ART - An introduction to working with new people with Dementia

I have recently started a placement at a residential home in Tring.
When starting to work with new people it takes time to became familiar with them. Even though, because of dementia, they may not necessarily remember you from the previous time you met it is your own familiarity with them that makes the art session work so well. This was the first time I had spent time with this lady.

The portrait above I drew while we talked and became acquainted, this drawing took around 30 minutes, by the time I had finished she was open to painting and made the art work below. She painted for around 15 minutes.

I look forward to my next visit...

ART WITH THE ELDERLY

ART can be used to help people with dementia.

As an artist and art practitioner I find that art is a way of helping people with dementia tap into their subconscious and improve memory recall.
Often while painting people will remember something they did when they were younger that they couldn't recall before and for that moment the memory exists and becomes part of the creative process. My main objectives within art sessions are to stimulate conversation, improve fine motor skills and lift the spirits of the people that attend.

My local Alzheimers Society have recently started a new Dementia Cafe and I am very happy to run a regular art session for them which is very rewarding.

I began running art sessions in 2008 when a member of my family moved into a residential home. I now work freelance with Sunrise Senior Living, Care UK and other independant residential homes providing regular art sessions and one off cover sessions.

Lynne D Jones-Field  

Ba (hons) MA

WWW.ARTWITHTHEELDERLY.COM

NEWS FLASH!

We are happy to announce that Lynne will be working with The Alzheimers Society in their new Dementia Cafe in Chesham. The cafe will be situated in the Town Hall at Chesham on the last Thursday of every month.
The cafe starts on Thursday 31st May 2012 and runs from 11.00 - 1pm. It will have a creative space which will be run by Lynne and last approx one hour. We will be concentrating on the theme of tea, coffee and  biscuits and we may end up using some of the art work for the dementia cafe logo! This is very exciting!
Here are some tea cup paintings that were created in Catherine Court residential home in High Wycombe.

Practitioner says art helps those with dementia

Posted by Jo-Anne Rowney on Mar 16, 12 12:00 PM in People

ART can be used to help people with dementia and Alzheimer's, an artist working with a residential home in Beaconsfield has said.

The art practitioner says art is a way of helping people with dementia tap into their subconscious.
She said: "You can't be too structured, especially with dementia patients, which is why art works so well.
"Often they'll remember something they did when they were young that they couldn't recall before."
She added: "One man was very anxious, but once he started copying some Van Gogh he relaxed.
"For borderline dementia patients there's this total immersion. It's like a coffee break - it's an escape where people are more than their condition."
Lynne Jones began running art classes with Sunrise in 2008 when her mother-in-law moved into the home and is hoping to offer more people a chance to paint and draw.
Since then the class has expanded to Denham White Plains and Catherine Court in High Wycombe and Lynne is working with the Alzheimer's Society to open an art cafe in Chesham next month.
Doreen Wilkins, 71, has been coming to the classes for three years. She said: "It's very relaxing, and there's quite a camaraderie with the other people.
"It gets me out of bed and it's calming because I just have to think about what to paint."
Daphne Hansen, 89, who moved into Sunrise six months ago, said: "Being in a wheelchair I can't always do the activities at the home, so the art class is a great way of escaping from everything and just painting."

Self portraits, memories...

I was invited to do a one off cover session with some very nice people at a residential home in Denham a couple of weeks ago. It is always lovely to meet new people and have an activity like art to use to engage with them. We started by making some of the Valentines Sticks (see below) to break the ice. I was delighted at how quickly these people worked and how happy they were to take part.
One of my favourite things to do is to draw on blank postcards, this excercise is meant to encourage memories by drawing self portraits, this sparks conversation which makes the art session even better. I learned so much about these 6 people in this one off session which was one and a half hours long.
This is how we got on...

Making a Mural!

We are having a super time at Catherine Court in High Wycombe. We have started a project to cheer up the dining room/activities area. As the area has alot of windows I decided to paint a tree between them to give us some background to stick our weekly art work onto. I have found that in my experience alot of elderly people really enjoy painting birds, flowers, animals, also insects and most things to do with nature. These topics spark conversations about their lives and their memories...scroll down to see how our active mural is progressing...

I love the way the hanging butterflies animate the scene.
The flowers below will be added to the mural when they are dry.