Stagebridge: Healthy Aging Program

Stagebridge's "Healthy Aging" Program is designed to help seniors stay healthier by participating in the arts, and employ the arts to educate healthcare professionals about older people resulting in better treatment. Our premise is: a) health is improved through active involvement with others, creative stimulation, and opportunities to flex the muscles of imagination b) the more that older adults are "seen" as human beings who still have much to offer, the better treatment they will receive by healthcare professionals, who routinely see them in their most vulnerable state, as dependent and ineffective. However, when they are able to reveal their experience and knowledge by participating in the arts, they not only alter their self perceptions, but also change the way others see them. This "shift of awareness" results in greater insight and sensitivity for both older adults and healthcare professionals. The "See Me!" part of the program provides training for nursing students, nurses, doctors, paraprofessionals and aides to improve their attitudes and be more understanding in their treatment of older patients -- the most rapidly growing medical population. In 2005, a grant from Johnson & Johnson and the Society for Arts in Healthcare enabled Stagebridge to inaugurate "See Me!" training with student nurses at Samuel Merritt College School of Nursing. Results of evaluations from the pilot program indicated that the program strongly impacted students' attitudes and knowledge. The response was unanimously positive. Merritt College nursing professor Jennifer Winters commented, "I had never seen a group of students react in such a positive way to a classroom activity...This is learning that cannot be achieved from traditional models such as textbooks, films or lectures." Subsequent evaluations showed that the nurses became far more aware of their patients as people, and thus more caring and sensitive in their treatment.

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People & Blogs

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• Stagebridge
• Seniors
• Healthcare
• Aging
• Nurses
• Training
• Hospitals

[DameEdithDivine]

What a wonderful, positive, smart program! Bravo!