Music, Connection, Community, and Dementia
A guest post by ARTZ Philadelphia Intern Emily Markovich
Read MorePeople who are living with dementia— and must rely on a healthcare system that often fails to empathize with their and their care partners’ needs — can feel misunderstood, unheard, and invisible.
In this online, three-week intensive course, first-year medical students at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine have the rare opportunity to learn at the start of their training what eludes too many in the medical profession: the lived experiences around dementia, shared with them by mentors for whom those experiences are uniquely personal
Together, PCOM students and their mentors are changing the way healthcare works.
Through ‘ARTZ-Connect @ PCOM,’ students focus on getting to know people living with dementia and care partners — as people and as their mentors, rather than as constellations of symptoms. Mentors are able to guide and share their experiences with students regarding what it means to live with dementia.
The initial vehicle for these relationships is the students’ and mentors’ shared experiences looking at and discussing works of art. Over time, mentors and students together generate ways that healthcare could work differently — more compassionately — for people living with chronic illness.
A guest post by ARTZ Philadelphia Intern Emily Markovich
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