Communicating with and relating to people with dementia can be difficult.
Family members, caregivers and practitioners may become frustrated when they concentrate on what the person cannot remember, or what capacities have been lost, rather than finding ways to interact that focus on remaining strengths.
That is why Daniel George, assistant professor of humanities in the College of Medicine at Penn State Hershey, has implemented an improvisational storytelling activity called TimeSlips at a local dementia care facility to offer his fourth-year medical students an opportunity to spend time with a patient population through the creative arts.
TimeSlips utilizes pictures as creative conversational prompts to spark participants’ imaginations. Their observations of the pictures are then strung together to tell a story.
“Because of our cultural understanding of dementia, most people wouldn’t expect those with cognitive impairment to be capable of telling stories, but this activity challenges our biases and stereotypes,” George said.
Learn more about TimeSlips in this Penn State Medicine story.