When dementia begins to fray the edges of memory, words often fail to bridge the gap between loved ones. These shifts often upend relationships and stifle communication. For licensed speech pathologist Liz Martin, who has seen what happens when words cannot fully capture a life’s history, the best way to rediscover those stories is through the creative lens of painting, writing or even podcasting.
That’s why she is co-leading a class in Easthampton focusing on “creative communication,” welcoming duos — a caregiver and someone 55 years or older experiencing memory loss — to learn ways to improve communication, and identify and create a story in a creative form. Individuals experiencing memory loss can join individually as well.
“In this field, I meet so many cool people and I hear about so many great stories,” said Martin. “But you know one of the hard things about memory loss and about dementia is that it’s harder to communicate (those stories).”
The free program is offered in partnership between the Easthampton Council on Aging and the Public Library, with classes to be held once a week for eight weeks at the Library’s Annex at 52 Main St., starting on Wednesday, March 25. Registration is required.
Martin owns her own private practice, Neuro Speech Services, and teaches at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Whether it was through teaching, her private practice or one-on-one clinical work, Martin has worked in a variety of settings as a speech pathologist.
She is excited to teach the class alongside a former student of hers and fellow speech pathologist, Abi Knopp, saying the partnership is the perfect way for the two to combine their knowledge.
“I could see that she [Knopp] had this same kind of like holistic, functional viewpoint to ways you can help people participate in the things they love, even if they have a communication disorder,” Martin said about Knopp, who took one of her graduate classes at UMass.
As memories change and become more challenging to express for people with dementia, Knopp said so do relationships with caregivers.
“Your relationship with your loved one changes,” said Knopp, who owns Mill River Speech & Wellness in Williamsburg. “That’s a thing that I have seen happen to a lot of people where you’re together, either it’s your parent or it’s your partner, and then they’re having this major health change and it becomes a caregiver sort of relationship — that’s really hard for both people.”
In the class, the two speech pathologists will have a theme each week to allow participants to explore an aspect of their life.
“It might be sitting down and thinking about a memory and all of the senses that are connected to it, or bringing in an object from your past and telling us a number of things about it,” Knopp said.
Knopp said the classes will amount to some form of creative communication expressing a feeling, memory or idea, either through writing, artistic methods such as painting or collaging, audio recording and other ways. “We really want to explore things and see what works for people, and have a couple different ways to express yourself in each session.”
The two speech pathologists said participants don’t have to attend every class but it is encouraged. The class is open to a wide range of participants whether someone has significant memory loss or not.
Martin explained that it is misleading to think that everyone with dementia has a communication disorder. But for forms of dementia such as Alzheimer’s disease, that target executive brain functions like cognition and memories, communication is going to be affected.
“You can’t have communication that’s fully at 100% effectiveness,” Martin said. “You can’t have that without having memory that’s working okay and attention that’s working okay.”
Martin added, even if you are not diagnosed with one of the many diseases that are considered dementia, everyone experiences natural changes of the brain as people age that affect thinking and communication.
Easthampton Council on Aging Director Cynthia Tarail said programs like this are vital because there is a lack of accessible programming for people experiencing memory loss.
Tarail knows there are memory cafes in the area, which is a model that offers people a space to come connect, or training for a specific types of dementia. But as far as she knows, there are no other neighboring programs that offer the openness, collaboration and education as the creative communications program. “That’s why this is so important,” she said.
To register for each week, contact the Easthampton Council on Aging at signmeup@easthamptonma.gov or 413-527-6151, ext. 139. Rides are available for city residents.