What Aspects of Art Therapy Would Interest a Sociologist
Art Therapy, Visual Sociology and Dementia Awareness
As function of Dementia Awareness week in Commonwealth of australia, the photography of sociologist Professor Cathy Greenblat (seen beneath) will go along to travel effectually Commonwealth of australia. Today's post gives some background on dementia research. I give an overview of the sociological contributions to fine art therapy. I pay special focus to art community programs that are being used to treat dementia. I talk over Greenblat's work as a form of applied folklore and as an case of how visual sociology can be used to reach new audiences outside academia.
What is Dementia?
Dementia is not ane disease. It is a collection of symptoms that end the brain from carrying out daily functions. Common forms of dementia include Alzheimer'southward, Parkinson'due south and Huntington's Disease. In the video further below, Alzheimer'southward Australia reports that 269,000 Australians have dementia. This means that 214 people are diagnosed with a encephalon disorder every day. A further 1.2 1000000 Australians treat someone with dementia.
There is no cure for dementia. It is a terminal condition. Drugs can exist used to manage dementia, only nutrition alternatives are likewise being scientifically trialled. This includes Folate and Vitamin B12 supplements, and a Vitamin E rich nutrition. Daily moderate practice (such as 30 minutes walking) and brain grooming tin alleviate further retention loss and aid patients better manage theirdisease This includes learning a new language, which can stave off the onslaught of Alzeheimer's, as well as music and art therapy (see also hither).
Upwardly to one-half of all cases of Alzheimer's cases are preventable through a low cholesterol, loftier phytonutrient diet. Phynutrients are founds in plants and fruit. Promising results for alleviating the symptoms of Alzheimer's are also found in apple juice and ginger root.
Meat eaters (including those who eat craven & fish) are 3 times at hazard of developing Alzheimer'south. A dairy-free diet has been shown to reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease. A vegetarian diet high in Omega 3, antioxidants & Vitamin E can besides assist brain wellness. This includes basics, seeds, wholegrain, blueberries, and avocado (for further information, meet here).
Art Therapy for Dementia
This week, Alzheimer's Australia is hosting a series of public lectures effectually the state. They accept corking resources on how to help families living with dementia on their website. They also focus on helping Indigenous Australians, linguistically & culturally various groups, and LGBTQI people.
The connection betwixt art and mental wellness are clear in the Dementia Awareness Week activities in Australia, with various galleries and art community groups supporting different events. For case, the Arts Health Establish is hosting activities at the Newcastle Museum and Art Gallery. The National Gallery of Victoria is hosting access tours for Art and Memory. Alzheimer'southward Australia has been touring sociologist Cathy Greenblat's photographic exhibition Dear, Loss and Laughter: Seeing Dementia Differently. This work includes photographs of dementia patients, their carers and families. It too incorporates photos documenting how art and music therapy is used in dementia treatment.
Fine art therapy is a multidisciplinary field with demonstrated applied wellness outcomes. Sociologist Phyllis Braudy Harris shows that medical treatments of dementia focus on physical deterioration. This framework of loss adversely affects dementia patients, who say they need aid living with their affliction. Folklore can address this by recognising and valuing the subjective experiences of people living with dementia. Harris writes:
The person'southward experience with dementia is, by its very nature, an ever-irresolute, circuitous, confusing, extensive, and life-altering experience that affects cocky-identity, social relationships, concrete, cognitive, and mental functioning, communication, spirituality, issues of autonomy, and above all his or her feeling of being accepted as fully man.
Harris notes that dementia sufferers have much to give through their embodied knowledge of this illness equally well as through helping others as volunteers or through other contributions.
Sociological studies take shown art therapy to have positive mental health benefits among vulnerable groups. Art, drama, dance and music help customs support groups where members practise not find talking therapy useful or where talking is otherwise hard.
A Visual Sociology of Dementia
Greenblat has a personal connection to dementia. Both her maternal grandparents and her mother had Alzheimer's disease. Greeblat was an Artist in Residence at the university hospital network in Overnice, France. She was a Professor of Sociology at Rutgers University for over 35 years and she'south spent the by ten years since her retirement as a photographer. She has exhibited various photographic works on dementia and crumbling, and published books on her photography.
The collection currently touring Australia includes over 85 photos taken in the USA, France, Bharat, Japan, the Dominican Republic, Canada, and Monaco. Greenblat's aim is to help other people understand the progression of dementia. She also seeks to reflect on the diverse experiences of people who alive with this status. Alzheimer'south Commonwealth of australia writes:
The exhibition offers a new vision of dementia and care, challenging the view that people with historic period-related cognitive atmospheric condition are "lost", "empty shells", "no longer here". Past illustrating the stories of those who are living with dementia through images, the exhibition conveys that life goes on after a diagnosis of dementia and that people with dementia continue to have needs around social interaction and engagement in much the same way equally anyone else.
Greenblat's photography can simultaneously be seen as a form of visual sociology and as an practical sociological do. Later, I will write more comprehensively on how applied sociologists use visual sociology, but in cursory, this term describes visual representation of sociological data or knowledge. Visual sociology is non about the assay of media, art or other images. That is, critiquing a photograph or video is not an deed of visual folklore.
Visual sociology is both a fix of theories and methodologies used to convey sociological ideas. This ways that a sociologist must produce visuals (videos, pictures and so on) as part of their sociological critique, evaluation or analysis of social phenomena. Visual sociology must therefore deliver a non-text-based representation of a social problem as its chief production or research result.
A sociologist'due south training, frequently discussed every bit our sociological imagination, provides the states a lens through which to view the world. What we run across is not what other people see. As Peter Berger wrote, a sociologist writes that "the commencement wisdom of sociology" is that "things are not what they seem." Visual sociology is about applying the sociological gaze when recording social phenomena. Greenblat's photographs are an instance of this visual folklore.
Sociology at Work's new Instagram @SociologyAtWork is some other instance of visual sociology, equally is our Applied Sociology video and playlist, and our upcoming YouTube series (more on this later!).
Alternatively, visual sociology involves a sociologist devising a study or program where their clients or participants produce visuals as function of the research or program consequence. Art therapy is an example of visual folklore (where a sociologist has devised a health program). In this case, applied sociology has much to contribute to community and public health.
– Mr Spencer, 56 twelvemonth old participant in Phyllis Braudy Harris sociology study
Practical Sociology of Dementia
Issues of gender, race, sexuality and historic period are important in an practical health context. This is not only almost identifying problems, only addressing them in a practical fashion that helps people comport out their daily piece of work more productively. This work must maximise wellness benefits for patients, families, workers and stakeholders.
In the instance of art therapy programs, lxx% to 95% of art therapists in different parts of the world are white women and largely presumed by their clients to exist heterosexual. This makes art therapy a culturally loaded infinite, the same as any other social field. Research shows that a white woman having command over a Black human being'southward body is going to take different historical and cultural ramifications for the patient and their therapist. Similarly, having a younger homosexual person teaching art to older dementia patients presents other issues that must be actively managed (run across the previous link for empirical examples).
At different stages of disease, dementia patients will take times of high lucidity. At other times, loss of cognitive, speech and physical abilities may lead to confusion or otherwise complicate communication. This does not necessarily hateful that a sufferer has completely let become of their personal preferences, biases and ideas of social comfort.
Having a sociologist devise or oversee an art therapy program for dementia is invaluable. Applied sociologists are especially receptive to the intersections of power, life experience and identities. An applied sociologist's job is to make art therapy work successfully for clients and their carers, without ignoring the reality of social relationships.
Applied sociologists can help navigate socio-cultural bug by providing art therapy that addresses social inequalities and divisions. Applied sociologists tin also help railroad train healthcare professionals and support families to better connect with dementia sufferers through art-centred healing.
Greenblat's exhibition is currently in Adelaide. It then travels to Brisbane and Sydney. See more of Greenblat'due south work in her book and listen to her on this BBC interview. You tin too watch Cathy discuss her work in the video beneath, a wonderful new short documentary by Corinne Maunder on dementia. Other examples of Greenblat's photography tin exist seen on her Honey, Loss & Laughter website, and for Cathy's other work, visit her personal site.
Larn more than on Dementia Awareness
Alzheimer'due south Australia – 2011 Dementia Facts Australia
Love, Loss & Laughter – Living with Dementia
Source: https://sociologyatwork.org/2013/09/17/visual-sociology-of-dementia/
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