| | | | Celebrating today, striving towards a brighter tomorrow | | Hearthstone's Research Division has been hard at work over the last year, kicking off two exciting clinical trials. Now that these projects are well underway, we'd like to share with you the progress of Life's a Stage: The Scripted-IMPROVTM Project and the Hearthside Book ClubTM. | | | Current Clinical Trials at Hearthstone Often readers associate Clinical Trials only with pharmaceutical research. This is not necessarily the case. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a clinical trial is "patient-oriented research ... conducted with human subjects (or on material of human origin ... and cognitive phenomena) for which an investigator ... directly interacts with human subjects." Life's a Stage: The Scripted-IMPROVTM Project  The Scripted-IMPROVTM clinical trial aims to develop alternative methods to improve engagement and quality of life for persons with dementia. The specially designed engagement drama approach called Scripted-IMPROVTM productions, is the intervention being studied. The Hearthstone Research Division is assessing the impact of this evidence-based drama approach on participants at assisted living facilities, nursing homes, and adult day centers in Massachusetts, New York, and Ohio.
The second year of the study has begun and our focus has shifted to developing the Scripted-IMPROVTM Drama Box. This will allow persons across the United States, and the world, to stage their own Scripted-IMPROVTM productions for persons with dementia. The project's Creative Team (Evan Bass, Miranda Noelle Wilson, and Chris Gage) has completed writing two additional plays for the study. Ahoy Me Pirate Tale is set on a pirate ship, where a cabin boy hopes to win the love of a captured princess. Dream Hotel is a choose-your-own-adventure story, in which guests arrive at the luxurious Hotel Rêve. The participants are invited to meet interesting characters in different hotel suites, where exciting adventures await them. The plays have been piloted and tested at several facilities. The outcomes have been positive as have been the response from participants and staff. Read More About Results... Hearthside Book ClubTM Project  The Hearthside Book ClubTM clinical trial involves the evidence-based development of reading material for persons with dementia. These age-appropriate materials are carefully designed to be effective and engaging for persons with varying levels of cognitive impairment.
The study has been progressing well. Thirty-two stories have been written on topics chosen by persons with dementia in focused groups. These stories cover a wide range of topics including The Beatles, Sailing, and Mexican Cuisine. Each book has been designed to help reading group participants achieve successful social interaction, reminiscence, and engagement. Data collection has begun at the first two of six sites to be used for the Book Club. Research staff is working at Hearthstone New Horizons in Marlborough, Massachusetts, as well as the Mandel Adult Day Center in Cleveland, Ohio. Study participants are being provided with several new programming types and researchers are tracking the success of these interventions. To date, data collection is running smoothly and researchers have already observed positive outcomes from the programming. Another focus of this study is the development of an innovative instrument to measure the type, frequency, and duration of communication between study participants. This measure will give researchers a view into how programming affects interaction during programming in this and other studies. | | Featured Non-Pharmacological Intervention: Physical Demonstration (Modeling) This section, a regular feature of this newsletter, highlights evidence-based, non-pharmacological interventions that research demonstrates are particularly engaging to persons with dementia. 
Type of Intervention: Approach Goals: Maintain independence, improve self-esteem, increase likelihood of success Description: Suppose you have a friend that aspires to be a magician. She is excited to tell you about a new trick she learned. She proceeds to explain verbally, and in great detail, how to make a playing card disappear and then reappear across the room. Midway through the explanation, you realize that you have no idea what she is talking about, and have no chance of doing the trick on your own. So you say to her, "Please show me how the trick works." She says, "Okay!" You watch her very closely, ask her to slow down a few times, and by the end you say to her, "Now I get it! Wow, I'm going to do it this weekend to impress my in-laws." There are many things that we learn to do through watching other people rather than listening to verbal instructions. Just think how challenging it would be to learn how to drive a car if you were simply told how to do it! Like anyone else, persons with dementia also benefit from being shown how to do tasks. In fact, it's even more important for persons with dementia to be shown what to do, rather than told, because the ability to understand verbal information may be difficult for them. Researchers have learned that the ability to understand verbal information is progressively lost as the condition progresses. Read More About Modeling.. | |  Meet the Researcher:
Gregg Gorzelle, Assistant Director of Research Gregg Gorzelle, is the newest addition to the Hearthstone Research team and we are grateful to have him! Since early in January of 2013, Gregg has embraced his role as Associate Director of Research, diligently working as the Project Manager for the Hearthside Book Club. In addition to project management, Gregg is also the chairperson of our Institutional Review Board (IRB), assists in proposal writing, and handles other day-to-day administrative tasks. In an interview with Gregg about his experience with Hearthstone over the last seven months, we talked about what he finds to be the most intellectually exciting part of his job. He shared that, "it would have to be the challenge of dealing with so many different aspects within the research arena. With responsibilities ranging from grant management to budgeting, collaborating on proposal writing to working hands-on with persons with dementia, there is always something new and stimulating happening in the Research Division." Gregg mentioned that the interaction he has with research participants -people living with dementia- is what he considers the most interesting part of his work. "There is nothing better than seeing people participate in programming and enjoy themselves in a meaningful way." Read More About Gregg.. | Links to Other Hearthstone Initiatives The Hearthstone Institute organizes educational events and trains individual organizations on non-pharmacologic interventions and the "I'm Still Here" approach to address the challenges and meet the needs of people living with Alzheimer's and related dementias. The Institute offers trainings for organizations, as well as public course offerings. Learning for Life is a multi-dimensional school, employing Montessori methodology and the latest research on Procedural Memory Systems. Participanting students select their own subjects of interest within an organized and supportive curriculum of learning. The "I'm Still Here" Foundation raises funds to develop non-pharmacological approaches to providing people with dementia the opportunity to have a life worth living. The celebrated success of its ARTZ programs and the It Takes a Village program, aims to change the overall public narrative of dementia in positive ways. ARTZ, a major program of the Foundation, links artists and cultural institutions to people living with dementia and their care partners. Influenced by science and sociology, ARTZ uses artistic experiences to unlock creativity, generate new memories, strengthen relationships, and enrich the lives of participants. Its major programs include Meet Me at the Museum and Meet Me at the Movies. | | | | Hearthstone Alzheimer Care, Ltd. September 18, 2013 Book Signing at ATRIA Atria Maplewood Place 295 Broadway, Malden, MA 02148 Contact: Lisa B. Shapiro 781-324-4999 x202 at ATRIA for more info September 26, 2013 Presentation at Mass ALFA: Design and Person Centered Care The DCU Center 50 Foster Street, Worcester, MA 01608 Contact: Mass ALFA for More Info | Michael Skrajner, Director of Research & Innovation Vantage Point Retirement Living By Skrajner, Haberman, Camp, Tusick, Frentiu & Gorzelle 2012 Chapter 20: By Camp, Skrajner, Lee & Judge 2010 | | | The Hearthstone Research Division aims to be a global leader in research on non-pharmacological interventions for persons with dementia. By developing, rigorously testing, and disseminating such interventions, we strive to improve the quality of life for persons with dementia around the world. Hearthstone Alzheimer Care, Research Division, 130 New Boston Street, Suite 103, Woburn, MA 01801 research@thehearth.org 1-800-579-6042 http://www.thehearth.org/research.html | | | | | |
