Old age, not dotage
A series of workshops conceptualised by NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine involving art, music, exercise, gardening and mindfulness meditation, coupled with health education, has proven effective in keeping dementia in check for at-risk seniors.
Professor Kua Ee Heok from NUS Psychological Medicine helms the 10-year Jurong Ageing Study, where senior citizens at risk of developing dementia attend various therapy sessions — ranging from art and music to taiji and mindfulness therapy. These activities were selected based largely on the experience of Prof Kua and his team with patients at NUH Memory Clinic. “We realised that some of them like music, some of them like art, but mindfulness was new. We need to have a constant form of exercise and we thought that taiji should be interesting,” Prof Kua said.
Although there is no cure for dementia, Prof Kua said that it is possible to “change the natural history of an illness” by tackling the associated risk factors for dementia, including hypertension and diabetes. As such, participants were educated on diet and exercise. Prevention of dementia is a cornerstone of Prof Kua’s therapy. This is crucial as the extent of dementia in the aged has been creeping up steadily over the years, from about 3 per cent some 25 years ago to 10 per cent as reported in The Well-being of the Singapore Elderly study conducted in 2013.
From the pilot crop of 120 seniors involved in the study, Prof Kua and his researchers, including Associate Professor Goh Lee Gan and Associate Professor Rathi Mahendran, found that the group which did music therapy showed the fastest improvement, although after three months, all the groups attained the same level of improvement.
Choral singing was the focus for another group of seniors. Spearheaded by Dr Maurine Tsakok from the NUS Society Choir, the spritely seniors rehearsed weekly with musicians from NUS Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, and even put on a rousing concert earlier this year. In a programme funded by National Parks Board, some 70 seniors did gardening and visited Singapore Botanic Gardens, Gardens by the Bay and Sungei Buloh on alternate weeks. Growing vegetables, it seems, appeals to the pragmatic Singaporean, as the fruit of their labour could be consumed. Avid gardeners can look forward to the Therapeutic Garden at Hort Park. To be opened later this month, the garden will feature sense-invigorating elements such as bright, beautiful flowers to stimulate the sense of sight, as well as fragrant herbs to stimulate the sense of smell.
Starting in July, 30 seniors from Jurong would embark on a nine-month art therapy programme which would see them participating in art therapy workshops and visiting NUS Museum and the National Gallery.
Ms Chang Yueh Siang, NUS Museum Curator, attended six training sessions from January to March, during which she learnt how to use works of art to encourage participants to reminisce, as well as to share their experiences and feelings. Ms Chang found the training sessions very beneficial. “The hands-on nature of the training allows us to gain practical techniques in facilitating the sessions [and it was] very good to learn from other trainees who have prior experience about etiquette in engaging senior citizen participants and the sensitivities to be aware of,” she said.
Prof Kua and his team aim to roll out an effective dementia prevention programme for at-risk elderly in the next five to six years. The programme could include health education, exercise in the form of meridian flapping (as some of the elderly had found taiji too physically strenuous), music, gardening and mindfulness meditation practice. “This will be something that is translational, that other people in the world can try it out and it’s something that NUS will be very proud of, because it’s a non-drug approach,” said Prof Kua.
