MOSAIC Moment: A Poem by Any Other Name is Not the Same!

Poetry speaks to more than just the soul, but can bring forth the memories of our residents’ life stories. This past month members of the Azura Memory Care Quality of Life Team had the opportunity to work with Gary Glazner, Founder of the Alzheimer’s Poetry Project, to engage our residents in creative expression through the use of poetry.

The mission of the Alzheimers Poetry Project is to facilitate the creativity of people living with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias with a goal to bond a community by building on shared words, passions, and discoveries through the performance and creation of poetry. The National Endowment for the Arts listed the Alzheimer’s Poetry Project as a best practice for the NEA Arts and Aging initiative and it was awarded the 2012 MetLife Foundation Creativity and Aging in Leadership Award .

Gary provided each location’s Quality of Life Team with tools to inspire, approach, communicate and better engage with those living within our family of care. He showed us ways to tap into their memories, allow them to be creative and supported to find their voice. This was accomplished as residents and team members engaged in a call-and-response poetry reading, sang songs, shared laughs and created the poem Trees.  Pictured is one of the creations from Azura Memory Care of Sheboygan.

“Our goal at Azura Memory Care is to transform the culture of care,” said Paula Gibson, Director of Communications and Engagement. “The Alzheimer’s Poetry Project showcases how poetry doesn’t just speak to our residents, but engages them to express their own creativity and find their voice.”

Learn more about the Alzheimer’s Poetry Project at www.alzpoetry.com.

Check out one of Azura Memory Care’s favorite Alzheimer’s Poems.