Using the power of poetry to help those with Alzheimer's
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Lars Ruppel kneels down in his sneakers and cautiously takes the hands of the women sitting in front of him. Then he begins to recite a rather sentimental poem in Berlin dialect: "You cut us bread, and made us coffee and pushed the pots around and washed
The 29-year-old has chosen to break the ice at the poetry slam at an old people’s home near Frankfurt, western Germany, with “Mutters Haende” (Mother’s Hands), by the well-known Jewish satirist Kurt Tucholsky. The residents of the old people’s home by the Ostpark in Ruesselsheim appear transformed. Smiles appear on the women’s faces, some have tears in their eyes as they recite the words along with him.
The poetry project is called “Waking Words” and is aimed at rekindling the long-buried memories of the elderly. Many of the 14 women and one man listening this morning are suffering from dementia or depression. Well-known German poetry, whether by Joachim Ringelnatz, Heinrich Heine or Joseph von Eichendorff, can be especially helpful in jogging their memories. The idea comes from the United States, where poet Gary Glazner founded the Alzheimer’s Poetry Project in 2004.
Ruppel invited Glazner to Germany in 2009, and since then has travelled throughout Europe, teaching care home workers and volunteers about the project’s idea. The poetry slammer, who last year became German champion, feels he was fated for it. He has a talent for enthusing his audience, whether it be with classic poems for the residents of old people’s homes or with nonsense raps he writes himself for an audience at the English Theatre in Frankfurt.
In the Ostpark home in Ruesselsheim, Ruppel is also working with a group of schoolgirls who one day want to become social workers. Before they meet the residents, Ruppel prepares the 16 and 17-year-olds. They must always speak directly to the residents and introduce themselves with a handshake, he advises.
Ruppel believes physical contact is very important when dealing with the residents, whose emotions can become confused.
Some of the schoolgirls are able to show intuition and spontaneity with the group of residents, while others find it difficult to engage with the experiment. The schoolgirls are to work with “Waking Words” in the future, and, of course, Ruppel has high standards.
But the award-winning poet plays it down.
“The students should get an idea about what’s possible with poetry,” he says. Whether the project actually helps those ill with dementia is not important, he says, what is key is developing a place for culture in old people’s and care homes.
The Ruesselsheim workshop is organised by the German Reading Foundation based in the city of Mainz, with support from a foundation run by publishing house Rhein Main.
“It’s a very important project because it provides a bridge between the generations,” says Wolf Borchers of the foundation. There are other projects at other schools, he says. Sometimes they simply involve the students reading aloud at care homes.
“When are you coming again?” asks resident Gerlinde Fischer, hopefully, as Ruppel ends his hour-long workshop. The spritely and mentally fit woman is 90, though you wouldn’t know it to look at her.
“You’re only old when you lose your mettle and aren’t interested in anything any more,” she tells everyone as they get ready to leave.
