Latest News

Person-centered dementia care highlighted with Canadian video shoot

Prominent Canadians and their caregiving stories were documented with a filming in Vancouver on April 16 sponsored by Cognitive Dynamics Foundation.  Foundation President Daniel C. Potts, M.D traveled to Vancouver and was joined by producer and filmmaker Judith Murray from Montreal and film crew Carl Alcock and Eric Davies to interview Dr. James Houston and Cathie Borrie.  Dr. Houston, founding principal of Regent College, friend of C. S. Lewis and one of the world’s most respected theologians was interviewed with his wife, Rita in their Vancouver home.  Their experience as care partners, along with Dr. Houston’s revolutionary ideas about the privilege of caregiving and the persistence of personhood despite disbility were highlighted in a lovely interaction.  Cathie Borrie, award-winning author of The Long Hello, discussed her beloved “Mum’s” incredible poetic revelations expressed while in the throes of dementia.  The filming took place upon the breathtaking backdrop of the Vancouver skyline.

Dr. Potts appears on America’s newest Web TV channel, StylAmerica.com

Cognitive Dynamics’ Founder and President Daniel C. Potts, M.D. was recently interviewed on StylAmerica.com about the foundation’s initiatives and programs.  The interview, which was done by Skype and appears at the link below, focused on the foundation’s initiatives “Bringing Art to Life” and “Cognitive Connections,” as well as the emphasis on remaining personhood in those with Alzheimer’s and other dementias.

http://www.stylamerican.com/

Foundation Advisory Board member Susan Warner honored by Metropolitan Museum of Art

(New York, April 2, 2012) In recognition of a lifetime of support for American art and a generous gift by the Warner Foundation, a gallery of early Hudson River School paintings in the New American Wing of The Metropolitan Museum of Art has been designated the Jack and Susan Warner Gallery. Located within the suite of 26 rooms in the New American Wing Galleries for Paintings, Sculpture, and Decorative Arts, the Jack and Susan Warner Gallery features the work of New York artists during the first half of the 19th century, who believed that America’s relationship with the land helped define the unique promise of the United States.

“As I announce the naming of the Jack and Susan Warner Gallery, I am also extremely pleased to acknowledge the generosity of their foundation, both to the Museum as a whole and to the American Wing in particular,” commented Thomas P. Campbell, Director and CEO of the Metropolitan Museum. “The paintings in the gallery that was named in their honor celebrate the American landscape as a resource for spiritual renewal and an expression of national and cultural identity.”   Emily K. Rafferty, the Metropolitan’s President, continued: “Jack and Susan Warner have been involved with the Metropolitan Museum in various ways for more than 10 years, and we are delighted that they have chosen to support one of the recently opened galleries of American paintings, an area of the Museum that they particularly love.”

The 95-year-old Jack Warner, whose grandfather invented the flat-bottomed brown paper bag, is the retired chairman and CEO of the family-owned Gulf States Paper Company, which he directed from 1945 to 1994. He was born in Decatur, Illinois, and graduated from Culver Military Academy and Washington & Lee University, where he is an emeritus trustee. He served in the United States Army as a commissioned officer during World War II in the last mounted cavalry unit under Lord Louis Mountbatten.

A renowned and pioneering collector of American art, Jack Warner has spent the past 60 years collecting masterpieces of American paintings, sculpture, and decorative art both for his company and foundation and personally. He united these collections in 2003 by founding the Westervelt-Warner Museum of American Art in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Working together through the Westervelt-Warner Museum and The Warner Foundation, Jack Warner and his wife Susan Austin have sought to enrich the community and the nation through educational programming and outreach programs such as the Annual Jack Warner Symposium on American Art. Susan and Jack continue to lead The Warner Foundation in managing and touring important works previously in the collection of the Westervelt-Warner Museum, which closed in 2011. These works, which include icons of 18th- and 19th-century American painting, have traveled recently to the New Britain Museum of American Art (Connecticut) and the Arthur Ross Gallery (University of Pennsylvania). The Warner Foundation promotes the use of American art to enhance the teaching of American history.

The Jack and Susan Warner Gallery in the Metropolitan Museum’s New American Wing focuses on the Emergence of the Hudson River School, 1825–50, and showcases works by such artists as Thomas Cole, Asher B. Durand, John William Casilear, and John Frederick Kensett, among others.   A special black-tie gala to celebrate the foundation’s gift and the Warners’ achievements will be held on April 4, 2012, in Tuscaloosa. The Metropolitan Museum will also host a Jack Warner Lecture Series devoted to American art, funded in part by The Warner Foundation, beginning later this year.

Check the link below for more information:

http://www.warnerfoundation.org/2012/03/metropolitan-museum-names-early-hudson-river-school-gallery-for-jack-and-susan-warner/

 

Cognitive Dynamics Advisory Board member Anjan Chatterjee, M.D. speaks in Philadelphia

There will be a screening of the documentary film “I Remember Better When I Paint” on Tuesday, April 10, 2012 from 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM   at The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, 19 South 22nd Street Philadelphia, PA 19103.   The screening is sponsored by the College and its Section on Medicine and the Arts.   Following the film screening, there will be a discussion with Berna G. Huebner, one of the film’s producers, writers and directors, and Anjan Chatterjee, MD, FAAN, FCPP, Professor of Neurology, and a member of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, and the Center for Neuroscience and Society at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Chatterjee is also a member of the Advisory Board for Cognitive Dynamics Foundation.  The evening promises to be a dynamic exploration of the intersection between the creative arts and medicine. The film, an exceptional internationally noted documentary highlighting the positive impacts of the creative arts on Alzheimer’s patients,  is narrated by Hollywood legend Olivia de Havilland.   The event is free of charge,  registration required.

http://irememberbetterwhenipaint.wordpress.com/2012/03/26/screening-of-i-remember-better-when-i-paint-tuesday-april-10-2012-in-philadelphia/

Dr. Chatterjee’s website is here: http://ccn.upenn.edu/~chatterjee/

 

Potts blogs about Glen Campbell and his music on MariaShriver.com

On a blog post released today on MariaShriver.com, Cognitive Dynamics President Daniel C. Potts, M.D. writes about the inspiring life of musician Glen Campbell, especially the courage he has shown after his diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease.  Campbell’s appearance on the Grammy’s was highlighted, and his family was lauded for supporting and encouraging him, including providing musical back up on his recent tour appearances.  The power of music and other expressive arts to validate and promote dignity and quality of life was emphasized.  Check the link below for the full story:

http://mariashriver.com/blog/2012/03/alzheimers-caregiver-how-glen-campbell-inspires-me

 

“Soul Fire,” celebrating life and creation through word and image

Daniel C. Potts, M.D. has authored his third volume of poetry, Soul Fire, which pairs poetry and photography in a celebration of the human spirit.  The volume is now available on CreateSpace at the following link:

https://www.createspace.com/3785126

“Soul fire, life’s inextinguishable flame of the true self, burns throughout eternity with God-imparted energy.  It warms the world with beauty and love; it sings and paints and dances and prays.  Seeking energy in others and burning more brightly in relationship, it imparts but never gives out. It is fire of the divine spirit infused through flesh, and no frailty or affliction can douse it.  Pure love is its infinite source.
It blazes with the colors of God.  These same colors are seen in the wonders of our world: sunsets’ glow, tender green of spring, ashen gray of clouds, vibrant hues of gardens, dark patterns in the grain of woods. The Unseen Hand paints from the reservoir of Heaven.
We must learn to feel this fire, to see these shades in others; to know them as eternal souls with cores of unfathomable elemental riches.  Seeing their true selves, we must celebrate life in them, with them.
And if flesh or mind should fail, we must affirm the light within, seeking to spread its warmth and glow through deepened relationship.  We must lift the torch of personhood for all.
This book is produced in celebration of the fire which burns in and through us and those we love; even in the grandeur of creation.  It gives gratitude to God for personhood and kinship, and for the immeasurable gift of this world, through which we may behold, even today, the creative mastermind at work.”

Angel Duncan to keynote at Good Life Providers of New Hampshire

Angel Duncan (MA-MFT, ATR), Executive Director of Cognitive Connections and Cognitive Dynamics Foundation advisory board member will be the keynote speaker at a convention of Good Life Providers Association of New Hampshire on February 29, 2012.  The lecture topic will be “Life Enrichment of a Better Society: Enhancing Quality of Life for an Aging Population.”

The Good Life Providers Association is a professional trade association of senior provider firms in New Hampshire and Maine that is dedicated to offering the highest quality services and products, delivered with integrity, care, compassion and in a fashion that respects the dignity of seniors, leads to positive social change and enhances the strength and professionalism of senior providers.

For more information about Good Life Providers of New Hampshire, visit their website at http://www.goodlifeprovidersnh.org/

New talk show to be hosted by Dr. Potts and Edie Hand

Coming Soon to RFD’s new Rural-TV Network!

Dr. Potts Speaks on Persistence of Personhood in Dementia

In early December 2011 Cognitive Dynamics President Daniel C. Potts, M.D. was honored to speak for Dr. Michael Parker’s Gerontology end-of -the-year celebration in the Department of Social Work at the University of Alabama.  The topic was the persistence of personhood in late stage Alzheimer’s disease.  Dr. Potts used the example of his father’s late stage Alzheimer’s art to illustrate the incredible creative power of the mind, even the mind ravaged by Alzheimer’s disease, and advocated for person-centered care in these individuals, including the use of the expressive arts therapies.  The Chair of the Alabama Department of Geriatric Psychiatry, the head of the University of Alabama Elderlaw Center, the Executive Director of Caring Days and the head of the Tuscaloosa VA Medical Center were in attendance.

“Bringing Art to Life,” Celebrating Art and Life Story

“Art to Life,” the University of Alabama Honors Course which provides art therapy and reminiscence to persons with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease in the community setting and preserves their life story, had its sememster’s-end celebration on December 8, 2011 at the University Club in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.  Ten Honors students, Associate Dean Jacqueline Morgan, student facilitator Emily Broman and art therapist Karen Gibbons spoke to a group of about 30, and the students presented their participants’ life stories, either on DVD or story book.  Each participant was given all the art created over the past 6 weeks in art therapy.  “He’s talking more,” said one participant’s wife.  “He is much more engaged than he was before the therapy,” she said.  “Thank you for celebrating the human spirit,” one family member said.  “You all did well, and should be proud of what you have done to raise their quality of life,” said one participant, speaking with the course director.  One participant with moderate Alzheimer’s was inspired to continue craft  activities after his art therapy had ended, and he started making beautiful, brightly-colored bird houses.  He had not shown previous artistic interest.  Another started singing again after her therapies were begun.  Plans are being made to offer this initiative (titled “Bringing Art to Life”) to other institutions in other regions of the United States.

Our Mission

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.

For more information about Cognitive Dynamics and what we do please contact us.