July 2008

Aging Well

Arts and Aging
Resource Guide – Enhancing
Health through the Arts

Confidence in “Comfortable”
Retirement is Declining,
Survey Says

Nutrition for Longevity:
Dietary Changes
for Healthy Aging

Workforce Strategies

Culture Change in
Long-Term Care Communities:
How Far Have We Come?

Building the Health Care
Workforce within
an Aging Society

Eliminating Barriers for
Older Workers to
Stay in the Workforce

Brain Health

University of California
Offering Free Internet Videos on Neurodegenerative Disorders

Potential for a Vaccine against Alzheimer’s Disease?

Celery and Green Pepper
Provide Hope for
Alzheimer's Disease

Focus Topic: Osteoporosis

Anti-Inflammatory Therapy
May Help Prevent Osteoporosis

Guidelines Issued for
Screening Men for Osteoporosis

Osteoporosis Medication
Use in Long-Term Care
Residents with Fractures

Newsworthy Resources

Benefits of Resistance Training
in Older Cancer Survivors

Quick Health Facts 2008

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Table of Contents

Arts and Aging Resource Guide – Enhancing Health through the Arts

By Kim Deng, Staff Writer

Creativity Matters: The Arts and Aging Toolkit, a resource guide by The National Center for Creative Aging (NCCA), offers strategies for enhancing health in older adults through the arts. 

Research suggests that active participation in the arts and learning promotes physical health, enhances a sense of well-being among older adults, improves quality of life for those who are ill, and reduces the risk factors that lead to the need for long-term care.  Currently, there is a general lack of awareness in the public, health care, and social services communities about the positive physical and psychological impacts of participating in the arts. 

Fortunately, Creativity Matters offers detailed advice on the design, implementation and evaluation of a professionally-led arts program for older adults. It is intended to increase the expertise of those who direct existing community arts and aging programs and to give others in the community the tools to take the first step. The information in this resource guide will benefit teachers, artists, leaders in the aging services and arts fields, and older adults who want to age productively.

The first half of the toolkit provides the background to help design and implement an arts and aging program. These chapters explain the context for arts and aging today: the benefits of arts participation for older adults; issues, infrastructure, and opportunities in the aging services and arts fields; and effective practices for arts and aging programs. The second half offers practical, how-to guidance for program design and implementation, program evaluation, and public awareness. These chapters illustrate important concepts of art education alongside concrete examples from successful programs.

The toolkit is beneficial since there is a valuable untapped resource of older artists who could be teachers or mentors in arts programs for seniors. Older adults might be encouraged to participate in dance, music, and visual arts activities and may choose to expand their horizons through art appreciation programs. Participation in arts activities can also lead to an intergenerational exchange of values and knowledge. For example, older adults may work together with younger populations to preserve the value of their memories and life experiences by recording them in various mediums.

Creativity Matters: The Arts and Aging Toolkit, published by NCCA, the National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts, and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center is available online at no cost at www.artsandaging.org.