The older adults involved in the Opening Minds Through Art program don’t use any elaborate tools in the artwork they create. But through one new innovative tool, the program will be able to bring more of them into OMA’s art therapy program than ever before.
OMA’s new platform, AVID, will connect seniors who are living with dementia with a younger volunteer via a virtual interface so the two will be able to collaborate on artwork.
The release of the AVID platform was announced this week during a LeadingAge members’ conference call.
“The art is failure-free,” OMA Associate Director Meghan Young told LeadingAge’s Ruth Katz. “There’s no right or wrong way to do it. Everyone can express themselves individually, creatively.”
The OMA program, which first began in 2007, was conceived as an intergenerational art program for people with dementia, and high school or college students, to “build bridges across age and cognitive barriers,” Young said. It is run out of the Scripps Gerontology Center at Miami University.
The viability of the virtual option was proven during the pandemic, Young said, noting that OMA struggled with the shift to online, but they experimented with what worked best and found that, in-person or online, the older adults relished the opportunity to connect with someone.
The ability for volunteers to come into senior living spaces and work with the residents living with dementia — OMA offers brief training for them to do the program — not only helps alleviate loneliness and foster relationships but also takes away some of the caregiver burden to engage or monitor them, or for facilities to have to bring in costlier art therapists, Young said.
The OMA art method gives older adults a choice of background color and then has them use tools such as stamps or collage pieces to create something abstract.
“Nothing is realistic,” Young said. “There are no trees or bowls of fruit here.”
The use of art therapy is becoming more popular within senior living, with some programs deploying technology such as cameras or smartpens to foster creativity.
