Objective: This study seeks to assess the impact of a pottery workshop as a creative arts programme and discover the extent to which people with dementia taking part in an artistic and creative activity engage with it, experience a feeling of well-being, and improve their mood state. In addition, the study will seek to answer the question of whether taking part in a programme of creative activities improves the self-esteem of people with dementia.
Method: The research used an uncontrolled, repeated measures design. Thirty users of the National Reference Centre for Alzheimer's and Dementia care in Salamanca (Spain) in a moderate to advanced stage of dementia (Global Deterioration Scale 4, 5, or 6) were divided into five intervention groups that received ten 45-minute sessions in which they were helped by facilitators to make different ceramic pieces. The participants were assessed before and after the intervention with a self-esteem scale, and they rated their mood before and after the sessions on a graphic scale. During the art sessions, two observers recorded the presence of multiple indicators of well-being.
Results: The intervention was found to have a significant impact on mood and self-esteem that was independent of the participants' Global Deterioration Scale. Regarding the tool used to observe well-being, the participants scored highly in the domains of sustained attention, pleasure, self-esteem, and normalcy, with low scores in negative affect and sadness.
Conclusions: Pottery may be a highly suitable activity for people with dementia, as they may enjoy both the activity and the creative process, with it triggering a positive mood during the sessions, providing psychological well-being and reinforcing their self-esteem.
Keywords: creative arts; dementia; non-pharmacological therapies; pottery; well-being..