umans cannot tolerate social isolation, yet many elder care facilities effectively practice “group solitary confinement.” But can we imagine another way? TimeSlipscreator Anne Basting says yes. Having spent years developing an effective model for volunteers, direct care workers, family caregivers and more, she now wants to infuse the entire care system with new responses to dementia and memory loss. Ashoka’s Simon Stumpf caught up with Basting to learn more.

Simon Stumpf: Anne, what are some of the stigmas and fears that surface around memory loss and dementia?

Anne Basting: Cognitive changes and memory loss are of course a normal part of aging. When significant changes happen, though, these changes become associated with a disease process and people get scared. They pull back. They try to repress or hide those elements of themselves. They can become isolated—whether they are at home or living in a long-term care facility. The common response of family members and caregivers is to try to help people feel better and connect with others by trying to recover memories. This is great but can also be limiting.

Stumpf: Why limiting?

Basting: Because we miss opportunities to create something new when we focus on recovering what’s perceived to be lost. What I’m trying to help families and caregivers see is that we can instead tap the strength and potential that remains in a person: the person's imagination and creative expression. A sense of meaning, connection and purpose comes with creative expression, whether it comes out in music, group theater, or another form of art. You’re fostering different communicative pathways for people to express themselves. Is this counterintuitive? Maybe. But one of the things we find is that triggering imagination often also triggers memory.

Stumpf: This is a big mindset shift. Who are you engaging to take it forward?

Basting: Well, think about the global numbers of people with dementia and people aging in isolation. We need a massive number of people who can use this approach and these tools in order to engage and keep people connected. We work a lot with family members, helping them to shift away from corrective approaches to ones that call forth creativity. The response to a forgotten word? What about: "What do you want to call it? Let's make up a name for that." There are ways to use creativity in everyday interactions and we can embed them into existing programs as well. There are also large-scale community projects that are really exciting and become legacy-building for folks who engage with them.

imagination