Alzheimer's Club

There's no cure for Alzheimer's Disease, but patients can sometimes recover memories lost for years. That's how it's been for Joyce Gilbert. She was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 2000, but is still able to share memories of childhood with her family.

"Things that were lost because of the Alzheimer's are now brought out in her paintings," said daughter-in-law JoAnn Gilbert. "She shows us places we haven't been and things she hasn't been able to tell us about."

Joyce is becoming an accomplished painter with help from "Memories in the Making," a program artist Toni Morley brought to Bay Area care facilities five years ago.

"I believe art is healing," Morley explained. "I've seen many miracles happen. I've seen whole pieces of people's history come back."

Small groups of seniors with Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia practice painting weekly, guided by artists and other volunteers. In her classes, Toni gently encourages artists to explain what inspired their work, and finds many are able to retrieve memories associated with the images they've created.

"I'm trying to elicit some conversation. I'm asking for a title that might elicit some memory from the past that the artist could share," said Morley.

At the Palo Alto Commons, facility director Sue Jordan has seen residents share things they weren't able to explain before.

"You see things that you wouldn't know if you just tried to sit and talk with a resident," said Jordan. "It also brings beauty and value to them."

Toni began her Memories in the Making program at Palo Alto Commons five years ago. Now, classes are held at 21 facilities from San Jose to San Francisco.

Joyce Gilbert has sold some of her art at auction for six hundred dollars. But the reward for her family is priceless: "It gives us memories that aren't bad, that aren't sad," said Gilbert. "My mother-in-law couldn't live the life she's living right now if it weren't for people like Toni Morley."

Toni is just as happy with the result. "For people who have lost the ability to communicate and who can't retrieve their thoughts the way you and I do," said Morley, "this is just such a special arena for them to be able to have that connection."

For making a connection to the past that brightens the present, this week's Jefferson Award in the Bay Area goes to Toni Morley.

Source: Jefferson Award Winner: Toni Morley. Helping Alzheimer's Patients Picture The Past. CBS 5 [6 July 2006] [FullText]