The purpose of this pilot project is to engage people living with dementia and their care partners in person-centered, creative practices that aim to validate caregivers and their care recipients, improve the quality of relationship and build micro-communities of social support.

The pilot project, For You: Creative Engagement for Dementia Dyads, was conducted by artist and Principal Investigator Rowena Richie, MFA, from 2020 to 2023. This website is the culminating pilot deliverable. Represented in the graphic below, the website features case studies and assets developed in response to Richie’s creative research. The name Five Brave Spirits is explained in a case study documented in the Five Brave Spirits Backstory. The heart cluster logo stands for all courageous participants in dementia studies worldwide, and Richie’s key recommendation: Share the load. Fear of dementia isolates those living with it and betrays our shared humanity. Let’s face dementia together with curiosity, hope and compassion. To do so is to keep everyone’s best interests at heart.

• The Booklets—written by people living with the “extra sense” that accompanies cognitive change—the booklets provide nuggets of wisdom and helpful perceptions to point us in the right direction.
• Heart Tank is a new way to care for care partners. By creating a container that invites vulnerability and courageous candor—a “heart tank” rather than a “think tank”—we help care partners connect and feel seen.
• Please add your insights and reflections on the Join the Discussion page: What do you know, or want to know, about living with cognitive change? What would a dementia-ready world look like?
• Explore the dynamic, artistic, hopeful offerings under Resources. Several are produced by other Atlantic Fellows for Equity in Brian Health.
• Listen to Five Little Animals, a free gift! A song celebrating the doggedness of motherhood, the persistence of personhood, despite the presence of Alzheimer’s disease.

This website is the culminating gift to all of you who are on the journey. I see you. I hear you.

My deepest gratitude goes to the pilot participants for opening themselves up to this experience—the hilarious, heartening and hard parts. Thank you Temple Crocker, Susie Hara and Joyce Calvert, my teachers, you motivate me. Thank you unforgettable loved ones: Page Crocker, Lilian Hara and Jane Dahlgren. Thank you Julie Klee for manifesting the booklets.

Thank you to the many inspiring GBHI Fellows and leaders whose dazzling work lit a fire under me. Thank you Atlantic Institute and the Atlantic Fellowship for Equity in Brain Health. Thank you for your subject matter expertise, Regional Mentor Ryan Tacata. Art Wife Erika Chong Shuch, your influence is immeasurable. Thank you Dancers’ Group for being my fiscal sponsor and Wayne Hazzard for your visionary dance advocacy.

Thank you: Teresa Cunniff for the elegant website; Alex Kornhuber for the exquisite photographs; Annie Kunjappy for the whimsical drawings; Stephanie Schaaf, thought partner; Ymkje Dioquino, reader; Merrill Gruver (and colleague), singers; Prayer Porch West, my godfamily.

Thank you Ed Frauenheim, my partner in life and matters of the heart. I’m so blessed you love and “get” me.

Five Brave Spirits is dedicated to the memory of Jane Dahlgren who died peacefully at home in November 2022. Thank you, Jane, my one-of-a-kind spirit guide and friend.

This research was supported by a pilot award through the Global Brain Health Leaders grant program, a joint effort of the Alzheimer’s Association, the Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI) and the Alzheimer’s Society to support emerging leaders from the Atlantic Fellows for Equity in Brain Health at GBHI.