Posted by Katya De Luisa Thanks for your reply. When the person is in late stage Alzheimer's they need a companion to do the physical work and help them focus in the present on the magazine through conversation. Earlier stages and their caregiver benefit greatly because they can create individually, discussing choices or create one together. This bonds them emotionally and enables the communication to improve while maintaining it throughout the progression. Too often the caregiver believes the person is gone when they can no longer communicate and they begin to emotionally seperate from the loved one. This complicates caregiving and thousands of people have been put into nursing homes prematurely because of it. Collages can be made with personal photographs and magazine imagery combined. I always recommend including the magazine work because of the subliminal mental and physical benefits. The magazine refelects the world of the past or the present. The paging through it imprints the brain and gets it processing a multitude of information. The pictures create emotional responses and when they are singled out of a scene empowers the individual to create a collage representation of experiences associated to the images. The individual actually experiences the beach, the bird, the house and when they are combined in a collage the neurons create new pathways. I've been at this 4 yrs. and held numerous workshops, presented at conferences, trained cartegivers, local hospice and Alzheimer's Association and yet haven't been able to get one researcher interested. So I'm finishing my manual, "Collage Communication during Alzheimer's" which I haven't found a publisher for. I have found a publisher interested in the book I'm compiling info for. "Innersense" reality perceptions during Alzheimer's/dementia. Thank you for posting me and I will continue to write and read your site.
on 7/29/2004, 10:33 am, in reply to "Re: magazine photo collage therapy with Late stage Alzheimer's -- WOW!"
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Hi Judy,