The Feelings Art Group

Nursing home residents with Alzheimer's Disease and other dementias experience losses in areas of physical and cognitive function and family life. Even in the severe stages of the disease and despite profound declines in cognitive functioning, dementia sufferers continue to experience emotions. Many struggle to communicate these emotions verbally. The Feelings Art Group, a social work led group on a dementia Special Care Unit within a 514-bed academic nursing home offered an ongoing group therapy program for skilled nursing residents with Alzheimer's type and other dementias. This group therapy program employed art-based activities as a stimulus to facilitate uncommunicated emotions in severely demented nursing home residents. The intervention was designed to tap into resident's feelings on a series of universal topics including family, work, holidays and seasons, using art as a vehicle for the expression of emotions. Employing visual, tactile, olfactory and audio stimulation, dementia sufferers were helped to find “voice” for their feelings. Before and after the group, residents with limited verbal abilities were able to identify feelings using a visual recognition scale and verbal cues. Outcomes included a heightened ability to identify emotions and increased socialization among group members.