Dementia, Alzheimer’s Doll Therapy: Beneficial or Demeaning? (Research, Story)

More and more people with dementia are being gifted with dolls and stuffed animals. While some caregivers find doll therapy rewarding for those with dementia and helpful in making positive connections, others say it is demeaning because it treats adults like children or overshadows real issues that need to be addressed.

Scientific research on doll therapy can put these worries to rest. People with dementia, like most of us, display a wide range of emotions. Through the years, caregivers have used a variety of ways, including chemical restraints, to channel agitated behaviors of persons with dementia. But baby doll therapy has proven to be one way that receives a lot of attention.

For too long, there was no protocol or official record of scientific experimentation on the success of doll therapy. That’s how the implementation of research protocol of doll therapy began for 16 residents at a dementia care center. Researchers measured the impact of the dolls on six areas of each resident’s behavior and their reactions to the doll. These are the results:

1)  Participants had an increase in level of happiness,
     activity/liveliness, interaction with staff and others, and ease of giving care.

2)  There was a reduction in the level of anxiety.

3)  The increase in happiness was a statistically significant outcome.  Baby doll therapy is an effective nonpharmacological approach  for improving the well-being of patients with moderate to  severe dementia.

As a hospice volunteer I had observed these positive results many times in various Detroit nursing homes. Here’s a true story (I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried) about an experience with a resident named Susan and her baby doll:

“Hi, Susan, I see you’re taking your baby with you to dinner,” I said to a woman wearing a high wattage smile that her baldheaded “baby” inherited.

“Well, I want to take my baby out more. Everybody likes her, you know, especially me. She told me she was hungry,” she responded.

“What’s your baby’s name?” I asked, exploring her reality.

She and the doll stared at each other, grinning as if they shared secrets from ancient times. And maybe they did. Susan looked at me, pointed to her doll baby and said, “She’ll tell you her name tomorrow when you come back with cookies.”

© Excerpt above from Becoming Dead Right: A Hospice Volunteer in Urban Nursing Homes

Frances Shani Parker, Author

Becoming Dead Right: A Hospice Volunteer in Urban Nursing Homes is available in paperback and e-book editions in America and other countries at online and offline booksellers.

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