Date of Award
Spring 5-21-2022
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
MA - Master of Arts
Department
Expressive Therapies
Advisor
Jena Leake
Abstract
This literature review presents the use of expressive arts therapies as they may be applied to end-of-life care for older adults. Death is inevitable and if given the chance to prepare, the expressive arts modalities provide a foundation to process the emotions associated with the ending of a life on earth. Expressive arts provide the opportunity to communicate in non-traditional ways which have the ability to locate subconscious themes. End-of-life care previously revolved around pain management. In more recent years it has evolved to caring for the whole person emotionally, socially, psychologically, and physically. Sources were found utilizing resources provided by Lesley University library services and included peer-reviewed articles and books. Findings included the benefits of music therapy and art therapy for older adults in end-of-life care. When applying expressive arts modalities to end-of-life care, patients are likely to benefit from increasing feelings of autonomy, clarity in their lives, and feeling a sense of community with other people in end-of-life care.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Lape, Rosemary, "Using Expressive Arts Therapies to Aid the End-of-Life Transition for Older Adults: A Literature Review" (2022). Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses. 584.
https://digitalcommons.lesley.edu/expressive_theses/584
Included in
Art Therapy Commons, Clinical and Medical Social Work Commons, Dance Movement Therapy Commons, Geropsychology Commons
Rights
The author owns the copyright to this work.
