OMA or Opening Minds through Art, “is an intergenerational art program for people with dementia.”
Founder of OMA Elizabeth Lokon grew up in Indonesia but came to the United States to attend college in California. After she completed her undergrad at USC, Lokon headed to UC Berkeley to pursue painting, her true passion. Unfortunately art couldn’t support her financially, so she moved to Hawaii to become a teacher. Lokon taught in Japan and then came back to Ohio after she got married and she started teaching in Oxford.
“This is where my path lead me towards OMA. I wanted to learn about something that I knew nothing about,” said Lokon. “I wanted to learn about the second half of life because I didn’t know a thing about aging.”
Lokon chose to go back to school to study gerontology for this reason. And instead of running from her fears, she faced them head on by living in a nursing home for a summer in Amsterdam where dementia care and studies are better funded.
“I could imagine losing my hearing and the ability to walk one day, but losing my mind was a scary thought,” said Lokon. “I wanted to better understand what I was afraid of.”
And that is exactly what she did. By combining art, education and gerontology, OMA came to be. Around this time Lokon also realized that patients with dementia still enjoyed being active and creative.
“That’s when I realized that this creativity and social connection is still possible with dementia patients,” said Lokon. “I wanted to show what beauty and humanity is still there with these people.”
Lokon strongly believed that even patients with dementia still had the ability to express themselves. With her background in art, she used her new knowledge in aging and dementia to create a safe haven for the lost mind.
“When the elders are participating in OMA they are engaged. They also show a high degree of social interest and pleasure,” said Lokon. “We’ve done a comparison between OMA versus other activities [i.e. scrapbooking] and we’ve found a lot more positive things come out of OMA than these other activities.”
Other research is being done to find out just how positive the effect of OMA is on the dementia patients who participate. A lot of this research is based on expressions that the participants make during OMA activities. Of all of the patients that Lokon has worked with though, she has had two amazing breakthroughs.
“Here in Oxford I was working with a lady who was very advanced in her dementia. She didn’t speak, she just banged her hands on the table and we didn’t know what to do with her,” Lokon said. “After getting her to the table to paint, she held the paintbrush in her hand. And after several months, she touched my hand and said ‘sweetie’ to me.”
“Another instance happened in Amsterdam,” said Lokon. “I had a Japanese flute called a Shakuhachi, which I played very low and meditative like. I played this flute, and this lady, another woman who hadn’t spoken in a very long time, came over to me and said ‘mooi,’ which means ‘beautiful’ in Dutch.”
“Both of these instances were like a gift to me. That it is most precious when someone who cannot speak gets moved enough to speak,” said Lokon.
In the future Lokon hopes to train more people to start up their own OMA programs. So far OMA programs have been developed in Toronto, Seattle and Milwaukee.
If you are interested in becoming an OMA volunteer, check out the OMA website and contact Lokon for more information.