Art and the Dementia Patient

One of the paintings at "Lester's Legacy"

Yesterday I attended a presentation at UAB Hospital by neurologist Daniel Potts entitled, “Bringing Art to Life. A Man. A Gift. A Mission.” It was part of UAB’s Psychosocial Spiritual Grand Rounds, sponsored by the Pastoral Care Department.  

Dr. Potts began his presentation saying that physicians are not trained in, and too often pay too little attention to the psychosocial and spiritual dimensions of their patients. When he saw how his father, who had never painted before, responded to art as an Alzheimer’s patient, it opened him to some of those spiritual dimensions of patient care. On a personal level, he began writing poetry in response to his father’s paintings.

On a professional level, Potts explained how as a physician he now looks his patients in the eye when they speak so he can better attend to them (instead of trying to get all of the data down on his computer). Sometimes a patient will communicate more by their expressions, even in their silence, than can be found in the simple facts alone. He now attends to his patient and writes up his notes later. He may miss a point or two, he said, but it is more important that he spend that patient time truly listening without the separating factor of a computer keyboard. Dr. Potts quoted one of his mentors who had said that a patient will tell you what is wrong with them if you listen.

In his presentation, Dr. Potts showed some of the paintings that his father, Lester Potts, had done. He explained to us some of the symbols that showed up in the paintings. They were images which reflected his father’s connection with those family relationships that were most important to him – and this was at a point when his father had lost the ability to communicate verbally.

There is no way I can do justice to Daniel Potts’ presentation. I can only say that I was deeply moved and wanted to try to share a little bit here. Dr. Potts has shared some of his story in a couple of short videos available on YouTube which I am including below: “Painting in Twilight: An Artist's Escape from Alzheimer's,” published by UAB Magazine, and “The Broken Jar,” which is a gallery of paintings Dr. Pott’s father did during the four year period that he painted.

He has also published a book, The Broken Jar, which contains his father’s paintings along with poetry that Daniel Potts wrote in response to the paintings.  

You can find more information at Dr. Potts' Cognitive Dynamics website. Cognitive Dynamics' mission is “To improve the quality of life of persons with cognitive disorders (such as Alzheimer’s disease) and their caregivers through education, research, and support of innovative care models which promote human dignity, especially therapies employing the expressive arts and storytelling.”

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