“With seniors, it’s about recording their stories, their knowledge and their wisdom, and being able to pass it on.”
A program that helps people create mask-body puppets helps seniors uncover their inner world while learning about mental health.
View from the Inside: Courage Journey is a workshop offered by WP Puppet Theatre to various groups around Calgary to help promote mental health and wellness. Those groups have included seniors-focused ones such as The Alzheimer’s Society – Club 36 and the Carya-Active Chinese Seniors Cultural Group.
“With seniors, it’s about recording their stories, their knowledge and their wisdom, and being able to pass it on,” says art therapist Allan Rosales. “At the same time we talk about mental health and mental wellness during the program.”
WP’s artistic and founding director Wendy Passmore-Godfrey says the class has participants create a beautiful piece of art alongside the conversations about mental wellness.
“Coming out of it is the promotion of mental health,” she says. “It’s not a lecture … it’s like living it, which I think is so much stronger.”