Adult learning enrichment for people living with dementia and their caregivers: Early observations of introducing andragogic principles in adapting an existing museum-based program.

Abstract

Face-to-face community engagement for individuals living with dementia and their caregivers was drastically reduced by the pandemic. In response to these restrictions, the Portals to the World program (based in Cambridge, England) was adapted from museum-based to a virtual setting. This environmental change reduced the existing anchors of museum access, art enrichment, and one-to-one engagement with staff and volunteers. Our adaptations to this new environment stressed a more andragogic (adult learning) model of enrichment that built on our existing program. We moved away from art-making and in-person gallery engagement with subject specialists but kept our multi-week course design. We prioritized purposeful learning, ownership, layers of experience, and immediate value (usually with emerging research topics or contemporary exhibitions). These added layers of learning replaced the environmental anchors we had used in the past. We also addressed challenges linked to the virtual environment and other impairments present for the participants, such as vision and hearing. Throughout, we aimed to continue the sense of non-traditional respite, improving the connection between care partners, peer-to-peer engagement, as well as access to high-value museum objects and learning from subject specialists. Our early observations and continued developments reveal advantages and disadvantages in delivery and expectations. These observations highlight contradictions in caregiver expectations between their understanding of dementia and learning. There were also challenges in where value should be placed: social capital, identity capital or economic capital, all while holding high value in access to the program and the course itself.