Previous NIA support enabled the investigators to develop a unique form of short-term intervention that produced significant improvements on standard measures of cognitive functioning in randomized trials. The intervention, which requires participants to engage in demanding (but enjoyable) cognitive, emotive, and physiological efforts in a social atmosphere, consists of activities generally used to train beginning acting students in college theatre programs. However, in the many facilities in which the program has been implemented, it has always been administered by the expert professional who devised it. The current proposal is designed to assess whether these techniques can be taught to in- place activity directors at senior centers and residences, so as to widen the reach and lower the cost of the program. No theatrical expertise is needed, just the ability to communicate effectively and run events successfully, which are defining characteristics of professional activity directors. The directors would be taught the rationales and techniques, and would then implement the entire program in their own facilities. Residents who engage in the program administered by these activity directors would be assessed by pre- and post- testing, using the same reliable and valid cognitive test-instruments employed during prior interventions. If significant results are obtained compared to controls, it would suggest that the intervention could be generalized to senior facilities throughout the country.
As baby boomers mature, there is a pressing need for practical, low-cost tools to promote healthy cognitive aging. This proposal extends a fully tested intervention, previously administered only by an outside expert, so that it can be performed by in-place personnel at senior centers and residences throughout the country.
| Noice, Tony; Noice, Helga; Kramer, Arthur F (2014) Participatory arts for older adults: a review of benefits and challenges. Gerontologist 54:741-53 |
| Noice, Helga; Noice, Tony (2013) Extending the reach of an evidence-based theatrical intervention. Exp Aging Res 39:398-418 |
