SENSORY and INTERACTIVE ART
Appropriate activity is very important to an overall treatment plan for people with dementia. Every item in this Sensory and Interactive Art category provides real therapy in the form of sensory feedback. As a designer of care communities, you become a significant part of that plan when you build this kind of activity into your design.
All these products are beautifully made and will lend an enjoyable and therapeutic ambiance to your Memory Care Community or Adult Day environment. In libraries they announce that “patrons with dementia are welcome here’” and serve to define areas that are particularly dementia friendly.
Art improves any living situation. There are those who claim that living without art is physically unhealthy. This is as true for people who have dementia as it is for all of us. Indeed, art and music provide some of the most effective therapies we have for treating dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease.
Art Therapy and Music Therapy are as beneficial as any therapy medical science has yet developed to treat the symptoms of dementia. These non-pharmacological interventions are sometimes measurably more effective than the drugs often prescribed. Sensory and cognitive stimulation also provide effective treatment, so we have found art that provides feedback across as broad a range of cognitive and sensory channels as possible. Some of these interactions are tactile. Others are interactive and demonstrate a cause-effect relationship or require a response that is cued by the design.
Consider the dimensions of these pieces – most are bigger than you might think from the images.