Our Observation

Alzheimer’s disease is described by the Alzheimer’s Association as an affliction that “destroys brain cells, causing memory loss and problems with thinking and behavior severe enough to affect work, lifelong hobbies or social life.”

More than 5 million Americans suffer from this disease and most of the treatments available to help these people are medical in nature. While the association says these treatments are necessary, it also reports that there are many symptoms of this disease that are difficult to treat with drugs and non-medical options should be explored.

The Orlando Museum of Art is the first museum in the state to offer a program that not only helps Alzheimer’s patients, but their caregivers, as well. The Art’s the Spark program inspires patients to create art and holds regular discussions about art to stimulate the mind.

The program is for folks in the early and middle stages of Alzheimer’s and provides a non-medical approach to treating the disease as well as providing a way for the patient and caregiver to connect.

OMA is not the first museum to reach out to people suffering with this disease. The Museum of Modern Art in New York was one of the first museums in the country to not only make their exhibitions accessible to this community, but it also offered specially trained art educators who could initiate discussions about art.

The association recommends an array of medical treatments for the cognitive symptoms of Alzheimer’s, such as memory loss and problems with language, but it strongly encourages first exploring non-medical treatments for behavioral symptoms, such as physical or verbal outbursts or emotional distress, before turning to medical options. Such treatments include changing the afflicted person’s surroundings to make them more comfortable and working on not taking their behavior personally.

Art therapist Ruth Abraham, author of “When Words Have Lost Their Meaning: Alzheimer’s Patients Communicate through Art”, said in an Everyday Health article that art can help quell feelings of isolation and restlessness, which are often associated with the disease.

The article also reported that not only can art therapy reduce the stress of coping with the disease, but it can also engage the brain and help stimulate “interpretive and expressive abilities”.

Other non-traditional forms of therapy include daily exercise, which can ease symptoms of anxiety often experienced by Alzheimer’s patients, and scrapbooking, which can have the same effect as art therapy with the added bonus of introducing photographs that could help jog the memory. The University of Maryland Medical Center recommends bright light therapy, which may reduce insomnia and wandering, music therapy, which can boost brain chemicals, improve behavior and reduce restlessness and pet therapy, which can increase appropriate social behaviors.

While the research for medical answers to this disease should absolutely continue, so should the quest to find programs such as Art’s the Spark that address not only the disease, but also with associated quality of life issues for the person afflicted and those who love them.