New Project of Music and Poetry Honors the Love of Care Partners

Sunday, April 3rd, 2022

“Love Is Stronger Than Loss” is a new playlist of 7 songs written by Daniel C. Potts, MD, FAAN honoring the love of care partners and persons living with dementia.

Daniel was introduced by Cheryl Blanchard of Alzheimer’s Tennessee to her son, Brandon Blanchard, a musician and recording professional in Nashville, TN, who provided the recording, mixing, and orchestral arrangements for the project, with Daniel Potts on piano and vocals.

We hope that these songs and the stories behind them will be inspiring to any who are walking the road of care partnership through dementia.

Here is a blog which contains the poetry, the stories behind the songs, and Youtube links for the music:

Love Is Stronger Than Loss

Here is a Youtube playlist of the songs:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTfkuNUdVB502wUvxCtuynKRO_A0byk1h

“Bringing Art to Life” to Open in Chicago

Wednesday, June 3rd, 2015

Bringing Art to Life, an exhibit opening at the National Museum of Health and Medicine Chicago June 5, 2015, from 6 to 9 pm, will feature art by Lester E. Potts, Jr., a saw miller-turned-watercolor artist after the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and poetry by his son, Alabama neurologist Daniel C. Potts, MD, FAAN. The exhibit will highlight art and design as quality of life-promoting therapies for people with neurodegenerative disease, as well as techniques to enhance the effectiveness of caregiving. Elizabeth Barber, PhD will discuss her research on art and interior design as tools to create therapeutic environments especially for people with Parkinson’s disease (PD), and which lessen caregiver burden. A panel discussion will include distinguished AD and PD physicians experienced in the expressive arts, and an art therapist. Panelists will include Neelum Aggarwal, MD, Elizabeth Barber, PhD, Theresa Dewey, ATR, LCPC, Christopher Goetz, MD, and Daniel C. Potts, MD, FAAN. The Greater Illinois Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association is a partner for the event. The exhibit will run from June 5 – 26.

Lester Potts’ Art to be Featured in Chicago Exhibit

Thursday, April 23rd, 2015

The National Museum of Health and Medicine Chicago will present an exhibit during the month of June entitled “Bringing Art to Life: Expressive Art and Design in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Patient Care” featuring the watercolors of Lester E. Potts, Jr. and poetry of Cognitive Dynamics Founder and President, Daniel C. Potts, MD, FAAN.  

Mr. Potts began painting only after the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease, and produced some 100 watercolors over a 3 year period while attending Caring Days Adult Dementia Daycare Center in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.  His work has been presented at the Alzheimer’s Association’s International Conference (AAICAD) in Paris, the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America’s national conference, and  the David W. Streets Gallery in Beverly Hills, among other venues.  In addition, it has been featured in the LA Times, Neurology Now, Best Alzheimer’s Products, Seasons of Caring and in recently published textbooks of Behavioral and Geriatric Neurology.

Bringing Art to Life seeks to continue a dialogue about how art can be used to enhance the lives and care of people with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. The exhibit will look at art and design as expressive therapies for the neurodegenerative patient, as well as techniques to enhance the effectiveness of caregiving. Research by Dr. Elizabeth Barber will also be featured in the exhibit; Dr. Barber has studied how artwork and interior design can help motivate and provide a beneficial neurological environment especially for people with Parkinson’s and ease the lives of both patients and their caretakers.

Dr. Potts Interviewed for U.S. News and World Report Article

Tuesday, December 30th, 2014

Daniel C. Potts, MD, FAAN was interviewed for an article on the use of poetry and other creative arts in the care and treatment of persons with Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia.  The article, released today, was written by Kristine Crane, a Patient Advice reporter at U.S. News.

The piece highlights the work of Mind’s Eye Poetry, an innovative organization founded by Molly Middleton Meyer.  Meyer’s inspiration comes from personal experience: she lost both her parents to Alzheimer’s disease.  A self-described “closet poet,” Meyer decided to get a Master of Fine Arts in poetry, and she now facilitates poetry workshops with Alzheimer’s and dementia patients nationwide.  During a workshop, each person contributes at least one line to a group poem – she’s facilitated more than 700 poems this way.

Dr. Potts was asked to comment about his father’s creativity which revealed itself after the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s, and which provided the spark to start his own creative fire.  Shortly before the elder Potts’ death, Dr. Potts started writing poetry as a way to combat the stress of his father’s illness.  He and his family published The Broken Jar in 2006, a volume of his father’s art paired with his own poems, and donated the book and all proceeds to Caring Days Adult Dementia Daycare Center in Tuscaloosa, AL, the facility where Mr. Potts learned to paint.  Cognitive Dynamics was founded to bring similar opportunities involving the arts to others with dementia and their caregivers.

As an arts advocate for the American Academy of Neurology, Potts also notes much clinical interest in the healing power of the arts. “People on the front lines are pulling the science and the art together because they are tapping more deeply than most of our therapies,” he says. “We’re going to have to tap deeply into the spiritual and emotional to make a difference in our care.”

The article may be accessed in full at the following link:

http://health.usnews.com/health-news/patient-advice/articles/2014/12/29/unlocking-the-inner-poet-how-poetry-helps-people-with-dementia