The project "Vic. Cultura i Alzheimer" [Vic. Culture and Alzheimer's] improves the emotional and cognitive well-being of people with dementia, as well as their social participation

Art and culture are very effective tools for improving the emotional and cognitive well-being of people with Alzheimer's disease, as well as their social participation. Cultural activities boost these people's moods and self-esteem, facilitate communication with caregivers, and family members, and help overcome stigmatisation and the isolation in which they may find themselves. They also have a very positive impact on communication with their caregivers and families. Those are the findings of the study carried out by the Mental Health and Social Innovation research group (SaMIS) of the University of Vic - Central University of Catalonia (UVic-UCC) as part of the "Vic. Culture and Alzheimer's" project. The results and continuation of this project, organised by UVic-UCC, Vic City Council and the Barcelona Centre for Contemporary Culture (CCCB), were announced at Casa Convalescència last Tuesday, on World Alzheimer's Day.

The presentation of the results of the research of the "Vic. Culture and Alzheimer's" project, which are qualitative rather than quantitative, was attended by the rector of UVic-UCC, Josep Eladi Baños; the Councillor for Welfare and the Family of Vic City Council, Núria Homs; the coordinator of the Centre for Health and Social Care Research (CESS), Marina Geli; and the coordinator of the Mental Health and Social Innovation (SaMIS) research group at UVic-UCC, Salvador Simó.

Scientific evidence confirms that neurodegenerative diseases take longer to affect creativity, expression, and artistic appreciation than short-term memory, for example. It also shows that art improves the quality of life of people suffering from neurological problems, as well as that of their caregivers. In more specific terms, occupational therapy based on art and culture fosters psychological and emotional health, and improves self-confidence, self-perception, and socialisation.

Art has also been shown to facilitate the social and community inclusion of people with dementia. For this reason, "the participation of people with Alzheimer's disease in art and cultural spaces should be encouraged, and the current trend towards an inclusive culture and museums enhanced," says Salvador Simó, principal investigator and co-director of the Mental Health Chair and the coordinator of the Mental Health and Social Innovation (SaMIS) research group at UVic-UCC. "Access to art and culture is a basic human right, and it is our responsibility as a society to ensure the most vulnerable groups have access, based on the co-creation of inclusive communities," he added.

A city project

The research carried out found that the project “Vic. Culture and Alzheimer's" has a positive impact on the educators, therapists and artists who participated, as well as the partner organisations and institutions. "It is an innovative project, being carried out on a city-wide level, and the assessments show the results have a very positive impact," said Simó in the presentation. This project has made Vic into a genuine Art dementia friendly city, say the organisers, as it involves around fifteen organisations and institutions in the city, which run activities related to painting, dance, sculpture, photography, film and music. For this reason, according to the lead researcher, "the main conclusion of the study is that Vic is a friendly city for people with dementia, based on art and culture."

In the same vein, Vic City Council's Councillor for Welfare and the Family, Núria Homs, recalled that "Vic City Council has been committed to the project from day one, as we understand very clearly that our goal is to have a friendly city, with a broad perspective towards people." The councillor emphasised the role played by the city's large network of social and cultural organisations, and added that the council aims is to "achieve a model of social policy which places the individual at the centre."

Homs announced that from this autumn, Vic City Council will begin to work with UVic-UCC on next year's 'Vic. Culture and Alzheimer's" programme, and she also announced that the programme will receive a financial endowment. "We will continue to move forward, and at the beginning of next year we hope to have an encouraging plan to reach as many people as possible," said the councillor. One of the objectives is to expand the project to people living in residential homes "and to enhance an innovative idea that works towards inclusion." Estimates suggest that there are about 3,000 people in Osona affected by some type of dementia, and around a thousand in the city of Vic.

Delaying the loss of cognitive elements

During the presentation of the results of the project "Vic. Culture and Alzheimer's", the rector of UVic-UCC Josep Eladi Baños discussed the complexity and ignorance that still exists around Alzheimer's, a neurodegenerative disease that develops differently in each person and "reaches a point where it is impossible to know if people who suffer from it are in pain or if they are not expressing it." For this reason, among other factors, he highlighted the current importance of engaging in good medicine, taking into account the humanities and the role that medical professionals have to play: "cure, sometimes; comfort always," he said, quoting Hippocrates. Baños stressed the relevance of cognitive stimulation for people with dementia based on disciplines such as culture therapy, as "perhaps the few neurons that can connect with each other can still bear fruit."

As regards the "Vic. Culture and Alzheimer's" project, the rector emphasised "the extraordinary and intense link between the university and the city, as evidenced by the large number of institutions that have participated in the project, with many of which the university also has a relationship." 

The coordinator of the CESS, Marina Geli, said that Alzheimer's is currently "a very important public health problem worldwide, with at least 55 million people suffering from this disease." Since the causes are currently unknown, "as science makes progress towards finding cures, we must seek the best possible well-being for people suffering from Alzheimer's, and this means we have to rethink everything, such as culture, which has to be open to everyone," she said. "Neuroscience tells us that this disease causes a short-term memory deficit while preserving other parts of the brain that retain long-term memory until the very end, for example," said Geli. For this reason, what programmes like 'Vic. Culture and Alzheimer's are doing is not delaying dementia, but instead improving well-being and possibly stimulating pre-established neural networks, as evidence has shown that there is some degree of plasticity in the neural network throughout our lives.

Other similar projects

The research team for this project, led by Salvador Simó, is made up of the researchers from the Chair of Mental Health Penélope Aguilera, Xènia Duran, Laura Marín, Oriol Segovia, Evie Vanquaille and Ivan Cano.

The first pilot test of the "Vic. Culture and Alzheimer's" project took place in 2018, although the first sample activity was held the previous year. The project follows on from the "CCCB Alzheimer's programme," which began at the eponymous cultural centre in 2010, and which the UVic-UCC Mental Health Chair assessed, and highlighted its positive impact on well-being and social participation. It was also evident in the research project led by the same research team in the Barcelona Auditori with the Catalan National Orchestra in 2019. Among other similar projects that have been carried out around the world with people with dementia, these researchers completed a research study with the Thyssen Bornemisza Museum in Madrid in 2021, which focused on people with mental illness.