A poetry program for the very elderly—Narrative perspective on one therapeutic model

Abstract

The focus of this report is a poetry program that the author has been conducting at a nursing home/short-stay rehabilitation facility for the past three and a half years. The program involves reading poetry to groups of very elderly residents who have significant mental and/or physical disabilities. This article includes a description of the program and the author's observations of its beneficial effects. Poetry readings were also given to individual seniors who have significant dementia. The therapeutic value of the program to the elders and to the person reading the poetry to the elders is discussed.

Healing words: A study of poetry interventions in dementia care

“…Since 1988, a dozen publications on poetry interventions have appeared, primarily from the perspective of psychology (Hagens, Beaman, & Bouchard Ryan, 2003; Kidd, Zausnzniewski, & Morris, 2011; Petrescu, MacFarlane, & Ranzijn, 2014; Potenza & Labancz, 1989), pedagogy (Aadlandsvik, 2008), poetry therapy (Furman, 2012; Reiter, 1994; Silverman, 1988; Wexler, 2014), and nursing (Green, 2009). I make a rough distinction between two types of publications on the subject.…”

“…Characteristically, in this type of publication, poetry therapists and performers (Furman, 2012; Glazner, 2005; Gregory, 2012; Wexler, 2014) testify to the techniques behind their individual poetry programs such as their preferred poems, performance style, way of eliciting responses, means of validation, and use of props. By detailing the method behind their program, the facilitators call for “doing poetic service” (Wexler, 2014, p. 45). The idea is that anyone who is a good listener and has a positive approach to the capabilities of people with dementia can take the lead in a poetry intervention.…”

The potential therapeutic benefits of reading poetry to nursing home residents: the road less travelled?

“…In reviewing our efforts, however, we had to concede that we have generated more questions than answers and our understanding of the therapeutic effects of poetry is still in development. It was apparent from the literature in general (Stevens et al, 1998) and from Wexler (2014) in particular that taking poetry into a nursing home can be a slow process with many practical difficulties getting in the way of an appreciation of the poems on offer (2014, p. 36). Wexler adopted a more multi-media presentation style, but the concerns he faced about the value of his efforts matched ours (2014, p. 40).…”

“…We chose poems we thought the residents would like to hear and also poems that we liked ourselves. Like Wexler (2014), we selected poems that moved us and that we "knew and enjoyed"(p.36), including a mixture of poems we thought might be familiar, perhaps from school-days, and more modern poetry which we hoped would be fresh experiences for the residents. As we discuss later in the article, our initial sense that the choice of poems was not that vital may have been wrong.…”

A complex reminding: The ethics of poetry writing in dementia care

“…In addition to giving voice to the “voiceless,” poems based on words from persons with dementia may function as “a medium for hearing and heeding their experience” (Zeilig, 2014, p. 160), and thereby also improve the general understanding of people with dementia (Aadlandsvik, 2008). An increasing number of research have indicated that persons with dementia participating in art activities, show improvements in terms of communication, memory, listening, concentration and quality of life (Gregory, 2011; Petrescu et al., 2014; Wexler, 2014; Young et al., 2016). Some studies also show that art intervention may contribute to more meaning, less isolation and reduced stigmatization for people with dementia (Bienvenu & Gay, 2017), and that they still have a drive for personal growth (Clark-McGhee & Castro, 2015; Petrescu et al., 2014).…”