Cedar Village dementia residents use art to sustain cognitive abilities

OMA is a Miami University Scripps Gerontology Center program that pairs volunteers with dementia patients for creative visual stimulation.

From 9:30 a.m. to 11:30, Fridays, 35 Cedar Village residents with dementia, practice such art forms as paint and collage to enrich and empower themselves.

“Some participants, who have lost the ability to feed or dress themselves, create beautiful works of art and title them,” said Carol Silver Elliott, president and CEO of Cedar Village.

Elliott said that of the 300 residents at Cedar Village, about 70 percent have some form of dementia, which encompasses general mental decline, including memory and reasoning loss. Those with higher levels, including Alzheimer’s disease, are suggested to participate in OMA.

In mid-November, Rookwood Pottery of Over-the-Rhine facilitated a tile painting project with the OMA Cedar Village participants. Fired tiles, along with artwork created since September, will be featured at a Cedar Village art show from 5 to 6:30 p.m., Dec. 5. Artwork will be displayed in the hallway behind Cedar Village’s activity center until summer.

Each participant works, one-on-one, with volunteers. Volunteers include Miami University students, who participate with the school’s OMA Club or honors program. Other volunteers include Cedar Village residents from the assisted living apartments next door to the main center, where OMA participants live and create art.

Cognitive and conceptual research is gathered from OMA participants through the Scripps Gerontology Center to gauge positive and negative participant feedback. Standardized observational tools are used to produce numerical data and individual interviews with willing participants are used to produce anecdotal.

OMA was founded in 2007 and has partnered with Cedar Village for five fall and spring semesters, each, as it follows Miami University ‘s calendar. OMA serves nine locations, including the Knolls of Oxford and Bradford Place in Hamilton. To volunteer, contact OMA Founder Elizabeth Lokon at lokonej@miamioh.edu or (513) 529-2914.