Some of the earliest forms of communication included wall paintings. We’ve come a long way since then, but for some, works of art are still an invaluable tool. Crafts for dementia patients can help aging adults express themselves in ways they’re no longer able to verbally.

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What This Article Covers

• Crafts for Patients
• Primary Benefits
• Next Steps

Crafts for Patients

Dementia affects memory and cognitive skills. It’s an unfortunate but true fact about mental health. And it has no cure as of now.

However, there are alternative treatments, such as art therapy, to help patients express themselves, reduce stress and promote memory recall. Art therapy and crafts for dementia patients are great additions to any long-term care therapist’s repertoire.

There are various crafts for dementia patients that can help your patients boost cognitive functions. Not only that but engaging in crafts might also improve their communication and social skills.

You must be cautious while choosing the crafts, though. Ensuring patient safety should be the primary concern while deciding on activities. To that end, we’ve put down a list of popular crafts for dementia patients for you to choose from.

Create a Scrapbook

Scrapbooking is essentially a creative art form that requires ?elaborate pasting and noting of photos, paintings or objects. It helps patients with dementia focus deeply in the process of collecting the photos, creating the framework, and executing the pasting and labeling.

For patients with dementia, you might encourage the use of photos or objects of significance from their past. It’s often a good keepsake and helps patients reminisce about the memories associated with the photos, making it one of the best options.

Paint Pictures

There are several types of art painting styles available. From paint by numbers to outdoor painting, you can have your pick from the dynamic palette. Patients with dementia can find painting relaxing and a way to unwind. It also jogs creative juices and helps promote purpose.

Sculpt With Homemade Playdough

Creating miniature animals or other figures out of homemade playdough is a fun-filled craft for dementia patients. Arm your patients with cookie cutters and playdough and see their creativity come to life. You can make the experience more relaxing for patients by adding essential oils that emit pleasant smells from the dough.

Design Bookmarks

Another popular craft for dementia patients is designing bookmarks. Patients can create colorful bookmarks and let their imaginations run wild. You can provide decorative papers easily available in stores and encourage patients to paint pictures or write a quote for decoration.

Colors and creative arts, such as decorating bookmarks, are great ways to stimulate latent brain functions in patients with dementia. It helps them focus deeply in an activity and improves communication skills as patients often tend to start talking in group settings during these art activities.

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Knot Fleece Items

A fleece jacket or blanket can be a great gift for a baby or adult to keep warm in winter. Knotting takes a few hours and is an easy craft for dementia patients to spend time on. Encourage patients to knot something to show off their love for a sports team or a design they’re fond of.

One thing to be aware of with knotting — it may be difficult for patients with physical ailments such as arthritis. If this is the case for some of your patients, you can always assist with the physical part.

Construct Wind Chimes

Who doesn’t like to listen to a soulful melody by the window on a windy night? For patients with dementia, the sweet melodies of wind chimes promote relaxation and stress release. You can encourage patients to create homemade wind chimes out of sea shells or other materials and paint them.

This can help them execute their visions and focus intensely on a task, as it requires drilling holes for threading, attaching the materials to one another and, finally, painting elaborate designs.

This is one that may cause some safety concerns when it comes to punching out holes. If patients can’t use the tools necessary to make the holes, you can always pre-drill items before the activity.

Make Paper Flowers

Flowers are colorful and bright and generate positive feelings in us. Creating paper flowers that never wilt or fade can be a good craft for dementia patients. Provide paper, scissors and glue to help patients create elaborate arrangements and feel accomplished.

From creating the template to covering the stems with wrapping paper, designing paper flower arrangements can help patients create lasting decorations that fill a room with beauty.

Bake and Decorate Cookies

Thinking of introducing some yummy crafts? What can be better than letting ?patients with dementia indulge in rolling out cookie dough and decorating the finished product? A simple task, making cookies can be a light-hearted endeavor with a loved one and doesn’t need sharp cognitive reflexes.

The participants can team up with family members and start mixing in the ingredients. Following that, they can add chocolate chips into the mixture and prepare the dough. Once the finished product is baked, you can use icing and other edible materials to decorate the cookies.

You can organize it in an open field or garden or an enclosed space with enough light coming in. Just make sure you have an oven nearby, if you opt to prepare the cookies outside!

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Primary Benefits

If your long-term care facility works with dementia, Alzheimer’s and other cognitive conditions and you’re looking for ways to improve patients’ quality of life and promote memory recall, arts and crafts are simple yet effective tools.

They’re great for outpatient settings as well. You can provide a list of activities that family members and loved ones can participate in with patients who don’t stay in assisted living facilities.

Arts and crafts can help bolster senses, improve memory and reduce stress.

Here are some of the primary benefits of crafts for dementia patients and others with cognitive limitations.

Improves Cognitive Functions

A patient with dementia may have hindered judgment, memory recall and brain functioning. While there are many types of therapies, such as reminiscence therapy, music therapy and more, to help patients with dementia, creative arts therapy also play a role.

Studies worldwide show creative tasks or activities can improve cognitive functions of an aging brain.

While there’s no definite cure for dementia as of now, art activities, such as painting, can help trigger cognitive functions in the brain and improve communication in patients with dementia and Alzheimer’s.

Decreases Agitation

Dementia can cause a flurry of hallucinations where patients feel some ill-conceived notion of danger to themselves. It causes needless stress and agitation that hampers their well-being. Certain environmental factors and decorations can also trigger agitation and discomfort.

Art and crafts therapy provides a doorway for patients with dementia to channel inner negative thoughts through works of art. Often, patients discuss their thoughts in the midst of a painting or sculpture, representing how art helps them focus on a certain thing and stops the mind from wandering.

Helps in Self Expression

Ever felt frustration while talking to a dementia patient? Relax, most people do. Now take a minute and think of how it feels for the patient? Your patient may want to express something they feel but can’t.

Crafts for dementia patients are a wonderful way for them to communicate with their inner self. Many emotions find place in paintings and creative crafting. You can even urge family members to interpret the painting and talk to the patients about what they were feeling while creating it.

Provides Ability To Reconnect

As the stages of dementia come one after the other, a patient might become increasingly withdrawn due to the discomfort they face on a daily basis. Art therapy often uses music, familiar scents and familiar objects to help patients with dementia remember something connected to those stimuli.

A familiar tune might jog their memories related to it and you can take an active step of listening and engaging in an effort to connect with patients. In this case, music often proves useful.

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Next Steps

While deciding on crafts for dementia patients, take note of the safety measures. It’s completely on you to provide a safe environment for patients and offer crafts that are unlikely to cause any physical or mental harm.

Crafting can help patients with dementia improve cognitive functions and reduce anxiety. During art sessions, patients can also improve communication and social skills. Altogether, crafts help them focus and express themselves.

If you want to purchase long-term care software to streamline therapy sessions and keep track of residents’ needs, head over to our free comparison report. It has detailed information about the best solutions available on the market.

Which crafts for dementia patients do you use? Leave a comment below.