| The First Art Newspaper
on the Net |
Established in 1996 |
Tuesday, August 18, 2009 |
| |
| Specialized Art Therapy can Help Alzheimer's
Patients Reconnect with their Identities |
|
|
|
SARASOTA,
FL.- Art therapy—not arts and crafts, but truly specialized
art therapy—can help Alzheimer’s patients reconnect with their
identities and life stories. It can open the floodgates of
communication when dementia patients have stopped talking. It
can support the recovery of stroke patients as they regain
mastery and a sense of control.
A firm called Youthful Aging Home Health Care employs the only
certified art therapist in the Sarasota-Manatee area who works
with Alzheimer’s and dementia patients. Registered Art Therapist
Poppy Scheibel utilizes watercolor, clay, embroidery, mixed
media and even origami in order to gain insight into the minds
her clients, some of whom are in their 90s.
Scheibel has a master’s degree in art therapy and is accredited
by the Art Therapy Credentials Board. She’s president-elect of
the Florida Art Therapy Association and a faculty member at
Ringling College of Art and Design, where she teaches psychology
of the arts.
Youthful Aging, a boutique home health care service dedicated to
helping its clients reach their maximum physical and
intellectual potential, established its art therapy program in
2006. President and CEO Nicci Kobritz says that an individually
tailored art therapy program can impact other aspects of
patients’ lives as well as family relationships. “Dementia
patients travel and live in a different world. Their art gives
them something they can engage in and connect with,” Kobritz
says.
One of Scheibel’s clients, a former surgeon, was able to work
with clay and sculpting tools to make precise carvings. Another,
a strongly maternal woman who derived a sense of purpose from
mentoring and teaching, taught Scheibel how to crochet.
“In the Alzheimer’s mind, the person can only keep focus for a
few moments. When we get into this creative art process, the
flow of the media almost mirrors what we want to create in the
cognitive mind. They get his mind-hand connection and they are
able to stay focused for longer periods of time. My goal is to
stretch that state of cognitive clarity,” Scheibel says.
Youthful Aging Home Health Care was established in Sarasota in
1999 by Ms. Kobritz. The boutique practice serves clients in
need of both short-term and long-term, 24/7 home health
services. Youthful Aging’s service model, which was developed by
Kobritz, is individually tailored to each client to manage
chronic health conditions, restore optimum physical and mental
dexterity and improve overall quality of life. Youthful Aging’s
goal is to enable clients to remain independent in their homes
and to do for themselves.
The company is headquartered at 7220 Beneva Rd, Sarasota FL
34238. nkobritz@youthfulaging.net. Telephone 941/685-9532.
|
|
|
