Carolyn L. Farrell Foundationwhere art and imagination fuel the mind
It is often assumed that people with dementia can not participate in life anymore, and that is not true. When we create activities that are accessible for them, they thrive and find joy. People with dementia can create, imagine, and have fun. Many people with mental illness have a highly creative side but without social support it is hard to tap into that side of the brain which brings us so much joy. Art has been used in many forms to support treatment of mental illness and we wanted to make these programs easily accessible to our community. Most importantly, isolation is a large contributing factor to increasing the pain and difficulty of having a brain disease. Our programs are designed to decrease isolation and increase community support. |
The CLF Foundation was created when the Farrell Family saw a need in the community. In caring for our loved ones, one with dementia and one with mental illness, we found that there are few activity based programs for people living at home with dementia/Alzheimer's and mental illness. We wanted to bring programming to the community in order to help support people's treatment plan and management of their illness. Our programs are largely art based because art and imagination are areas of the brain that are relatively easy to tap into for people with mental illness and dementia.