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Dementia and the Arts: Sharing Practice, Developing Understanding and Enhancing Lives

Explore, challenge and shape your perceptions of dementia through science and the creative arts

18,848 enrolled on this course

Photograph of people participating in a dance and music session

Dementia and the Arts: Sharing Practice, Developing Understanding and Enhancing Lives

18,848 enrolled on this course

  • 4 weeks

  • 2 hours per week

  • Digital certificate when eligible

  • Open level

Find out more about how to join this course

Understand how the arts can improve the lives of people with dementia

Creating a society that supports people living with a dementia is a major challenge - and opportunity. On this course you will discover how the arts can create a common ground between people. You will learn what we can all do to improve the quality of life and care for people living with different dementias, examining best practice and the limits of our current understanding.

Drawing on the work of the Created Out of Mind project during its residency at the Wellcome Collection, this course will expand your perceptions of the dementias and the diverse role of the arts in all our lives.

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Skip to 0 minutes and 15 seconds Hello my name is Sebastian Crutch and I’m a neuropsychologist directing the Created Out of Mind research residency team here at The Hub at Wellcome Collection. This online course about dementia and the arts aims to enrich, explore, and challenge perceptions of the dementias through a combination of science and the creative arts. The course, and everything you’ll learn within it, is designed to reaffirm the value of people with dementia and their experiences, and to demonstrate the power of the arts to communicate both the experience and biology of the dementias. During the four weeks of this course, you will learn from people living with different dementias, from experienced artists and practitioners, and from clinicians, scientists, and policymakers.

Skip to 0 minutes and 58 seconds Through videos, interviews, and reading, these contributors are keen to showcase current best practice, to explain the limits of our current understanding, and to set ambitious goals for enhancing the lives of anyone affected by one of these conditions. The course tries to represent a broad range of views, but in creating the content, we have been particularly motivated to highlight the value and importance of in-the-moment experiences. We talk of the arts not as things to be done to people, but with and for people.

Skip to 1 minute and 28 seconds And even if you don’t feel you have an artistic bone in your body, we think some of the examples of connecting, sharing, and creating with people living with dementia that you will see can challenge our views of the role of the arts in all of our lives. So whether you live with dementia yourself, are helping to care for or support someone who is, are an artist or practitioner currently working or thinking about working in the dementia and arts field, or are a student, scientist, or commissioner trying to understand the role of arts based practice in dementia care, we hope this course will enrich and shape your own perceptions of the dementias.

Syllabus

  • Week 1

    Seeing the dementias differently through the arts and seeing the arts differently through the dementias

    • How can the arts communicate the experience of living with a dementia?

      Find out what's coming up this week, and learn about the Created Out of Mind project, and how it came about to explore what the arts can tell us about the lived experience of dementia. Image credit: Wellcome Collection

    • How can the arts help us understand dementia?

      Learn how different arts-based practices can give an insight into the dementias. Image credit: Profiles in Paint, 2014-18

    • How can the experience of living with dementia inspire the arts?

      Learn how the experiences of living with a dementia can be an inspiration to artists and various arts practices.

    • The arts in care settings

      Learn about some of the ways on which arts-based activities can affect residents, staff and artists within care homes. Image: Courtesy of Living Words

    • The arts in practice: Three perspectives

      Hear about three different perspectives on how engaging in arts-based activities has intertwined with the dementia experience.

    • Conclusion

      We hear how the arts for health and wellbeing can have an impact on the national agenda and recap what has been learned this week.

  • Week 2

    How can moments be understood, experienced and measured?

    • Arts-based practices as a gateway to in-the-moment experiences

      Explore how moment-to-moment experiences can help to give people living with dementia meaningful experiences

    • The arts applied

      Hear about some of the ways in which arts have been applied in communal settings to facilitate in-the-moment experiences for people living with dementia. Image: Courtesy of Singing with Friends - James Berry.

    • In-the-moment experiences in care settings

      In the two following videos, you will hear how in-the-moment experiences can be particularly impactful in care home settings.

    • The lived experience

      Hear three different perspectives on how the arts can play a role during in-the-moment experiences for somebody living with dementia.

    • Conclusion

      We hear how learning to better understanding in-the-moment experiences can help to improve social care for people living with dementia, and we recap what has been learned this week.

  • Week 3

    Creating Common Ground: The Arts, Equality and Dementia

    • How can the arts help to establish common ground?

      This week we will explore various different ways in which the arts are able to create common ground between people living with and without dementia, and how this helps to foster a sense of greater equality. Image credit: Scriberia

    • Shifting the focus

      Explore how the arts can help to shift the focus in terms of what it means to have a diagnosis of dementia and the implications that this has on creative engagement and contribution.

    • The arts in practice

      Learn how arts-based practices, such as those applied in With All, enable learning and remove barriers between people.

    • The transformative power of the arts

      Learn how arts-based activities can remove barriers between people and create a greater sense of community.

    • A national agenda

      Explore the ways in which providing opportunities to create common ground for people living with dementia is a national concern.

    • Conclusion

      We review what has been learned this week by encouraging you to complete the Test Yourself quiz questions, the Try-It-Yourself Exercise and post any questions or recommendations in the Communal Pinboard.

  • Week 4

    Language & Communication: How can we change the conversation?

    • How can language shape our perceptions of the dementias?

      Learn how the language that is used talk about the dementias influences our own perceptions of what it is like to live with the diagnosis.

    • Creating dialogue between science and the arts

      Learn about some of the ways in which science and the arts are coming together to carry out research into the dementias.

    • Using the arts to enhance communication

      Learn about different ways in which the arts can be used, both verbally and non-verbally, to enhance communication for and with people living with dementia.

    • A broader cultural perspective

      Learn how the arts can embrace a far-reaching cultural perspective to provide better opportunities for people living with dementia.

    • Conclusion

      Review what has been learned this week by completing the Test Yourself quiz questions, the Try-It-Yourself Exercise and post any questions or recommendations in the Communal Pinboard. Image credit: David Sandison/ Wellcome.

When would you like to start?

Start straight away and join a global classroom of learners. If the course hasn’t started yet you’ll see the future date listed below.

  • Available now

Learning on this course

On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

  • Explore the emerging landscape for dementias and the arts in which artistic and cultural interventions are now being acknowledged
  • Reflect upon a variety of arts-based communication strategies that can be employed to engage with people living with dementias
  • Develop a qualitative appreciation of the value of ‘in the moment’ experiences
  • Reflect upon the worth of scientific research in bridging clinical sciences and arts-based practices to further our ability to care for people living with dementias
  • Describe the value of creating common ground, and the associated importance of shared experiences, co-creativity and equality
  • Investigate the role of language and communication on the perception of dementias
  • Apply knowledge to model a broader understanding of the lived experiences of people living with dementias

Who is the course for?

This course is designed for anyone interested in dementia care and how the arts can be used to enhance care.

You might be living with dementia, helping to care for or support someone who is, or you’re a healthcare practitioner working in the dementia field. You may also be a student, researcher, or commissioner trying to understand the role of arts-based practices in dementia care.

Who will you learn with?

Seb Crutch is Professor of Neuropsychology at the Dementia Research Centre, UCL Institute of Neurology, & Director of the Created Out of Mind dementia & arts residency at The Hub, Wellcome Collection.

Janette Junghaus is Project Coordinator at Created Out of Mind, the dementia and arts research residency at The Hub, Wellcome Collection, and Research Assistant at the Dementia Research Centre, UCL.

Charles Harrison is Resident Artist at Created Out of Mind, the dementia and arts research residency at The Hub, Wellcome Collection.

Who developed the course?

UCL (University College London)

UCL was founded in 1826. It was the first English university established after Oxford and Cambridge, and the first to open up university education to those previously excluded from it.

Created Out of Mind

Created Out of Mind is a team aiming to explore, challenge and shape perceptions and understanding of dementias through science and the creative arts.

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Ways to learn

Choose the best way to learn for you!

Subscribe & save

$27.99

For the first two months. Automatically renews

Develop skills to further your career

  • Access to this course
  • Access to 1,000+ courses
  • Learn at your own pace
  • Discuss your learning in comments
  • Tests to boost your learning
  • Digital certificate when you're eligible

Cancel for free anytime

Buy this course

$134/one-off payment

Fulfill your current learning need

  • Access to this course
  • Learn at your own pace
  • Discuss your learning in comments
  • Tests to boost your learning
  • Printed and digital certificate when you’re eligible

Limited access

Free

Sample the course materials

  • Access expires 16 Apr 2024

Find out more about certificates, Unlimited or buying a course (Upgrades)

T&Cs apply.

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