The World Health Organization's Active Ageing policy framework highlights the need for economic and social engagement in communities to maintain and promote healthy ageing and quality of life. This framework does not address the needs of those living with long-term health conditions such as dementia. Although continued employment is not…

Reflection and Connections at the University of Oregon (UO) Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art (JSMA) like all educational offerings at the UO, moved online with just over a week's notice. Those associated with Reflections and Connections, recognizing the importance of this program to the social well-being of those participating, decided to maintain…

This chapter introduces those posthuman ideas that we have found most useful in our research with people with dementia. These include: 'thing power', 'intra-activity', 'agentic assemblages', 'affinity', 'trans-corporeality', 'submersion' and 'potentia'. We show how we have used them, drawing on 'data events' from our studies. The methodological…

Background: This study reports on new contexts in which formulaic language has been used in the years since 2013 when the last synthesis was carried out. The background presents an old but still useful definition and lists themes under which research was arranged in 2013 and which continue to be used. Aims: This study has a particular emphasis on…

Art therapy appears to be well positioned to assist people with dementia in improving their psychological well-being and quality of life because of its ability to address neuropsychiatric symptoms and to circumvent declining cognitive and verbal capacities. However, despite increased interest in nonpharmacological approaches to the care of people…

Adults with Down syndrome are at high risk for Alzheimer's disease (AD), with most individuals developing clinical dementia by their late 60s. This increased risk for AD has been attributed, at least in part, to triplication and overexpression of the gene for amyloid precursor protein (APP) on chromosome 21, leading to elevated levels of amyloid…

This short essay uses James Thompson's aesthetics of care to examine 'Memory in Two Voices', a multi-vocal poetry performance about dementia by long-time lesbian partners Chris Morrissey and Bridget Coll. Noting how Chris and Bridget's years-long tenure in the Queer Imaging and Riting Kollective for Elders, an arts and performance group based in…

Here, intelligence is taken to mean scores from psychometric tests of cognitive functions. This essay describes how cognitive tests offer assessments of brain functioning--an otherwise difficult-to-assess organ--that have proved enduringly useful in the field of health and medicine. The two "consequential world problems" (the phrase used…

This paper presents an account of current literature on the topic of music and memory, supplemented by qualitative research in the form of interviews with seniors who are living with dementia. Music is a strong memory trigger, often linked with emotion, and stored in parts of the brain that, for most people, still function after other memories…

The increasing incidence of aging adults with cognitive-communication impairments and demand for services that enhance the quality of life of this population necessitates examination of the evidence-based srategies that hold the mos promise in producing desired quality-of-life outcomes. The adoption of person-centered care approaches in health…

Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) have an important role in supporting the caregivers of persons with dementia from diagnosis through the end of life in 4 major areas: education, training to use effective cognitive communication strategies identified for clients with dementia, psychosocial/emotional support, and counseling. Speech-language…

More than 20 years ago, the concept of using the Montessori Method as a treatment for dementia was discussed in the pages of "Montessori Life" (Vance, Camp, Kabacoff, & Greenwalt, 1996). At that time, research was just beginning on this topic. Since that initial article, the use of the Montessori Method with older adults with…

Background: Adults with intellectual disability are affected by dementia at equivalent and elevated rates, many surviving into advanced age. End of life care and support considerations come into play among these individuals when most are in the advanced stage of dementia. Methods: A preliminary report summarizing available literature and making…

Arts & Minds programs aim to promote well-being for people with dementia and their care partners. Educators must balance the needs of participants with the given conditions of display in the museum. While connection to the art historical canon is a consideration for program planning, the choice of artworks for contemplation and dialogue…

Elvira Lindo's novel "Una palabra tuya" (2005) explores the ways in which shifting familial roles affect the identity of individual family members, highlighted by Encarnación and Rosario's changing mother/daughter relationship, which is impacted by dementia. This debilitating illness converts the roles of parent and child to those of…