“Worth Repeating” is a weekly feature on the EngAGE Blog that will bring you previous posts that we think are still timely, interesting, or just plain fun! From 9/22/11:
TimeSlips is an exciting new free interactive resource for storytelling designed to support growth and learning with people with dementia and their caregivers — but it’s fun for everyone. The website launches this weekend, but EngAGE Blog readers can get a sneak preview:
“Families wrestling with dementia are commonly consumed with the daily challenges of managing care,” says Anne Basting, PhD, Director of the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee’s Center on Age & Community. “The new website provides a creative and positive way to engage and communicate that is not focused on the disease, but rather on growing, learning, and playing together.”
TimeSlips allows people with dementia to use free association to create original stories, using a variety of fun images and open-ended questions as prompts. This replaces the pressure to remember and the fear of saying something wrong or embarrassing with the pleasure of engaging the imagination.
TimeSlips.org and the companion online training have been endorsed by people with dementia and leaders in the fields of aging services, the arts, education and civic engagement. “The revelation and realization that, ‘I can’t remember, but I can IMAGINE!’ blessed my mind, heart and soul. I hope I remember that until I can’t remember!” said recently diagnosed Dave Sheehan, about the new online training.
The new web site enables anyone with an Internet connection to create stories with loved ones, friends or residents, regardless of where they live, and creates new opportunities to communicate with people with dementia.
The in-person version of the TimeSlips improvisational storytelling method was especially designed to foster communication with people with cognitive disabilities like dementia. Peer-reviewed research suggests that TimeSlips storytelling activities improve communication and increase the pleasure and quality of life of people with dementia. In long term care facilities, it has been shown to increase social engagement between staff and residents. Since 1998, TimeSlips has trained more than 2,000 professional facilitators in the approach.
Visitors can use the website for free and without training, but are encouraged to take the new online training if they use the method with groups of people with dementia in professional or supportive settings. TimeSlips also offers individual and organizational certification.
For more information, please visit www.timeslips.org or contact TimeSlips
Contributed by EngAGE Executive Director Tim Carpenter
