Art Therapy for Patients With Dementing Illnesses

Art Therapy for Patients With Dementing Illnesses

  Art therapy has proven to be a useful modality in caring for demented patients in a day hospital. Its theroretical framework is largely psychoanalytic, but it can also indicate the presence of psychosis or organic brain damage. Art therapy in supportive to demented patients, providing a pleasant structured activity with which they can cope, in which they can take pride, and which allows them to express themselves even when language is largely lost. It is, however, critical to match the artistic medium and the type of art work to each patient"s capacities.