Clown therapy program impacting dementia residents
Trained familial-clowns employ music, reminiscence activities
Monday June 28, 2010 -- Lisa Bailey
They’ve seen the dementia progress in recent years to the point where the resident can no longer speak. But when her colourfully attired and light-hearted friends with the bright-red rubber noses visit, she sings to the best of her ability.

“She reached out, took our hands and started singing Polly Wolly Doodle . . . She makes eye contact and her eyes are bright blue and there’s just the sweetest smile on her face, so I know she knows what’s happening,” says Sandy Radvanyi, a familial-clown with the Fools for Health organization.

Charmaine Miron and Sandy Radvanyi, shown here as familial-clowns.

Known as Merry Kay! when she visits residents at Richmond Terrace in Amherstburg, Radvanyi is also artistic director of Fools for Health. The charitable, community-based organization uses the arts to promote health and well-being in hospitals and long-term care homes in southwestern Ontario.

At Richmond Terrace, recreation director Hannah Renaud says a lot of residents “really light up when they see (the familial-clowns) coming down the hall. They smile, they laugh with them, they sing with them.”

It’s this kind of connection and stimulation that the familial-clowns are looking for with the Down Memory Lane program.

“We’re not entertainers, that’s not our purpose,” says Radvanyi, who likes to think of familial-clowns as “clown friends” visiting people in their home.

Sharing a common background in performance and trained in clowning, familial-clowns employ music, humour, improvisational play and reminiscence therapy to engage residents. They might, for example, bring a ukulele and play and sing songs known to residents, and talk with them about their past and the pop culture of their era.

“It stimulates the brain . . . the more a person thinks instead of dwelling on something negative, the more they think about the good-ole days or other positive things in their lives, it lifts their spirits,” Radvanyi says.

According to Fools for Health website, familial-clowns “aim to increase the quality of life for seniors by engaging in activities that help rejuvenate creative, expressive and communication skills, and that help residents connect the past to the present and be present in the here and now.”

The website states that familial-clowns’ work has been shown to help residents connect to their immediate surroundings, recognize family members, remember the past and improve cognitive functioning and communication skills.

Familial-clowns can also fill a gap for residents who, for various reasons, don’t participate in programs or activities at the home, Radvanyi says.

Working in pairs — sometimes adding a student from Fools for Health founder Bernie Warren’s clowning in health-care course at the University of Windsor —familial-clowns visit Richmond Terrace for a half-day every week and see about 25-30 residents of varying capabilities.

Simply called “clowns” by residents, they really take the time to get to know residents in order to have meaningful interaction, Renaud says.

Radvanyi says the familial-clowns also engage staff and families to brighten the atmosphere and lift their spirits.

They do take notes and anecdotes for research purposes.

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